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THE GERMAN EMPEROR 



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• ♦ • 



MERRY TALES. 

By Mark Twain. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND HIS EASTERN 
NEIGHBORS. 

BY POULTNEY BlGELOW. 



SELECTED POEMS. 

By Walt Whitman. 



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The German Emperor 



AND 




HIS EASTERN NEIGHBORS 



7 

POULTNET BIGELOW 




5Jn» IJork 

CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 
1892 



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Copyright, 1892, 
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 

(A// rights reserved.) 



PRESS OF 

Jenkins & McCowan, 

NEW YORK. 



EDITOR'S NOTE. 



The hostile criticism evoked by the aggressive deeds 
and words of the German Emperor is the natural result 
of a sudden change in political conditions. It is long 
since a young ruler has come to the throne in Europe, 
ready to think and act for himself, and with undoubted 
ability to do so. However far behind this century Wil- 
liam II. may be in his ideas of the royal prerogative, it 
cannot be questioned that in other respects he is fully 
abreast of his contemporaries. More than this — he has 
adopted a system of applying new methods of treatment 
to ancient abuses which might well be followed by older 
and more mechanical statesmen. The world has been 
so busy picking flaws in his after-dinner speeches, that 
it has lost sight of the practical results of his short reign. 
It is safe to declare that these exceed what Bismarck 
accomplished in the previous ten years. The Emperor 
has aimed high, and has invariably hit something — per- 
haps all he intended to hit. At the same time, in mat- 
ters requiring diplomacy, he has worked quietly and 
well. His settlement of the Guelph affair is a striking 
example of this. 

One phase of the German question has been entirely 
overlooked. It is that the Emperor is the very last 
flower and fruit of the national system. He is more 
German than the Germans, and herein lies his greatest 
strength. The recent allusion to "slippered grum- 
blers," and his suggestion that those who were not 



vi editor's note. 

pleased with his government might leave the country, 
are distinctly German in character, and must have 
appealed strongly to the national feeling. 

Mr. Bigelow's sturdy republicanism has not blinded 
him to the ability of his old playmate. There are few 
who have been allowed to enter so completely into the 
Emperor's plans and aspirations; and knowledge of 
these has been used with advantage in the following 
pages. An extended tour through the Danubian prov- 
inces and Western Russia has also enabled Mr. Bige- 
low to record his personal observation of the state of 
affairs in the debatable ground of Europe. The chap- 
ter describing the fighting forces of Germany supplies 
an interesting account of the best-equipped army in the 
world. 



Credit is due the " Cosmopolitan Magazine" the " Cen- 
tury Magazine" the "Forum" the London " Speaker" 
and the " New Review "for chapters of this book which 
have bee7i reprinted from their pages \ 



DEDICATED 

TO 

MY DEAR FRIEND AND EXCELLENT TEACHER, 

Jlrofcsaov lltcl)art Scljtllbacl), 

OF POTSDAM. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Personal Notes of the Emperor's Boyhood i i 

The First Years of His Reign 29 

His Army 53 

Germans in Russia 87 

A Polish Point of View 93 

The Russian Censor 107 

The Roumanian Peasant 115 

A First Impression 124 

Russian Priests in Roumania 131 

Crossing the Russian Frontier on Foot . 140 

War and Famine 152 

A Commercial Forecast 161 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR. 



PERSONAL NOTES OF HIS BOYHOOD. 

r 1 ^HE accession of William II. to the leader- 
■*■ ship of the German Empire,* more than 
three years ago, was the signal for an outburst 
of party passion that did not confine itself to 
the Fatherland. The English Press welcomed 
the event with ominous growls; and it was not 
long before every paper in North America, 
not to speak of Australia, was enlisted in the 
circulation of paragraphs illustrative of the 
new Kaiser's thirst for war and lack of filial 
piety. 

The German Press, at least that portion of 
it which stands in close relations to throne and 
altar — and the Chancellor — f poured forth day 
after day the stereotyped form of praise sup- 

*The present Emperor William II., succeeded his father, 
Frederick III., June 15, 1888. 
f Bismarck did not retire from office until March 17, 1S90. 



12 HIS BOYHOOD. 

posed to be adapted to the ears of a new sov- 
ereign, but with so little discrimination that no 
one could have relished it less than the man they 
pretended to honor. Liberty of speech and Press 
being, in Berlin at that time, imaginative concep- 
tions, it was the hard task of the new Emperor 
to seize the reins of government without hav- 
ing had the opportunity, so richly enjoyed by 
his illustrious father, of creating for himself a 
strong and warm body of political and per- 
sonal supporters. The great historic figure of 
his grandfather had passed away but ninety- 
nine days before that of Frederick III. His 
elevation came at a time when all the world 
was contemplating the two great sovereigns of 
the century, the heroes of Sadowa and Worth, 
the builders of United Germany. Before such 
men all popular feeling bowed cheerfully, as 
under a debt of gratitude from which death 
alone could liberate them. The present Em- 
peror, who was but twelve years old when 
Sedan fell, has a new empire to create for him- 
self, and even Germans ask themselves — will 
he succeed ? 



HIS BOYHOOD. 1 3 

In force of character and intellectual power 
the present Emperor surpasses any of his 
predecessors, certainly up to the time of the 
Great Frederick. There are but few who 
know him well, but amongst those this sweep- 
ing statement will be recognized as within the 
truth, and moreover one that might have been 
made of him from his schoolboy years up. He 
thinks for himself, thinks logically, and, like 
many logical people on the threshold of life, 
follows a logical conclusion to a point that 
might alarm a practical politician. His edu- 
cation for the ten years prior to attending the 
University in 1877 was entrusted principally 
to one of the most conscientious, most exact- 
ing, and, at the same time, most winning of 
academic spirits, the learned Dr. Hinzpeter. 

In the topmost story of Frederick the 
Great's " New Palace," near Potsdam, in what 
we may vulgarly term the attic, were the quar- 
ters occupied by the preceptors of the then 
Prince William, and his brother the sailor, 
Prince Henry. To one accustomed to the 
luxury of American and English houses, the 



14 HIS BOYHOOD. 

bareness, not to say bleakness, of the upper 
story of this famous palace was striking, par- 
ticularly so in contrast to the innumerable 
gorgeous flunkeys who guarded the state 
saloons below. But it was ample in space and 
a foretaste of the barrack life that should seem 
comfort to a Hohenzollern. In wet weather 
the great attic made a capital play-ground, 
and many an Imperial pane of glass was 
smashed by the blundering aim of one of the 
youngsters. In such romps the Princes entered 
heart and soul, giving and taking like the 
manly little fellows that they were. The good 
Dr. Hinzpeter would repeatedly whisper to me 
to take care and not hurt the Prince's left arm, 
a warning apt to be forgotten, particularly 
with one who was so clever with his right. 

As to the Emperor's imperfect arm, it is ex- 
traordinary that the life which has largely left 
it should have apparently been utilized in the 
strengthening of his right. Any one who has 
shaken it feels as though Goetz von Berlich- 
ingen had given him the grip. As a fencer, it 
was to be expected that he should develop the 



HIS BOYHOOD. 1 5 

proficiency which characterized him at Bonn, 
but it was little thought that he would have the 
patience and energy requisite to becoming an 
expert shot, a good swimmer, and a capital 
oar. In the saddle he manages to hold his 
reins with his left, in order to have his sword 
arm free, and I have many times seen him ride 
across country taking obstacles which some of 
his officers have refused. And the moral cour- 
age, the persistency, the sense of duty, the 
pluck, which overcame the impediments to 
physical development, were constantly at work 
in other parts of his education. 

In the park of Sans Souci, near the Palace, 
were planted the masts and rigging of a ship, 
where Prince Henry received practical instruc- 
tion in sailoring, and which became a favorite 
romping place. Netting was stretched over the 
lower space, and we were occasionally turned 
loose to scramble about the rigging, some of us 
playing at pirates making chase after a crew 
that had taken refuge aloft. Or, what was 
better still, we sometimes took a cruise about 
the neighboring lakes on the miniature frigate* 



l6 HIS BOYHOOD. 

a craft that looks very portentous at a distance, 
with its scowling ports and man-o'-war yards, 
but in reality, when on board, seems little 
larger than a good-sized ship's cutter." The 
cruise on the frigate was always considered 
the greatest treat of all, and no doubt to the 
pleasure derived then is due the fact that the 
Emperor to-day is a devoted patron of yacht- 
ing, and sails his toy frigate on the Havel 
whenever opportunity offers. 

When the day's romp was over, we had tea 
before going home, always out-of-doors in fair 
weather. The late Emperor Frederick and 
his devoted wife never failed to appear on 
these occasions, to say a few words to each of 
us, asking after our families, or about the 
sports of the day. The Empress in particular, 
then Crown Princess, always examined our 

* This little frigate was a present from George IV. to the 
Emperor's granduncle, Frederick William IV., and is to-day 
the favorite yacht. At Potsdam the Emperor keeps also a 
little steam yacht, whose most important function now is 
to be ready to tow the frigate home should the wind fail. 
A detachment of blue-jackets is on duty at Potsdam for 
the purpose of looking after the Liliputian frigate and its 
auxiliary tender. 



HIS BOYHOOD. IJ 

food to see that it was wholesome, and saw 
that her little sons and daughters, as well as 
their guests, had their napkins properly tucked 
beneath their chins. The food was, it is need- 
less to say, of the plainest and most wholesome. 
Bread or toast, fresh milk from the Crown 
Prince's model farm at Bornstedt, and some 
simple bread-cake, with big raisins in it, per- 
haps. When the Crown Princess and her hus- 
band made their appearance, no face lighted 
up with more pleasure than that of Prince 
William, for the relation of parent and child 
could not be conceived in more happy form 
than in those days in the park of Sans Souci. 
I remember once — it was at tea on the steam 
yacht, some anniversary, I believe — Prince 
William whispered to me a fact in which he 
took enormous pride, that the cake had been 
made by his mother. 

Of course, at these romps, the idea of expect- 
ing etiquette to be observed would have been 
absurd; Dr. Hinzepeter would have none of it, 
the Royal parents held it in horror, and no one 
despised servility more than their eldest son. 



18 HIS BOYHOOD. 

Occasionally, there came into these hilarious 
play-ground meetings some youngster, no 
doubt the son of a highly placed official, who 
Jiad been carefully drilled at home to show 
proper deference in the presence of the blood 
•Royal. Such a poor wretch lived in momen- 
tary dread of violating some imaginary rule, 
and moved about morbidly conscious of his 
courtly role. Prince William, celebrated as he 
justly is for tact, could with difficulty conceal 
his contempt for the little flunkeys that now 
and then were forced upon him. 

Not that he ridiculed their shyness; on the 
contrary, it was he who invariably set the new 
arrivals at their ease, discovered their leading 
tastes and suggested the sport that would 
please the larger number. And when sport 
was once under way it would have been a keen 
observer indeed who could have said that 
either Prince relied upon anything beyond his 
own head and hands to make the day success- 
ful. It was my fortune, as an American, to be 
credited with an intimate acquaintance with the 
red savages of the Wild West, and this repu- 



HIS BOYHOOD. 19 

tation I could in no way shake off, in spite of 
the fact that at that time I had not even seen 
one. In consequence of this alleged knowl- 
edge I was frequently called upon to give de- 
tails as to Indian warfare which I should deep- 
ly regret to see reproduced. Prince William 
knew Cooper from beginning to end, and, for 
that matter, I was not far behind him, so that 
our Indian studies usually resolved themselves 
into impersonating some Leather-stocking he- 
roes, arming ourselves as fantastically as possi- 
ble, and then crawling flat on our stomachs 
through the underbrush, for the purpose of cap- 
turing some other party impersonating either a 
hostile tribe or a party of pale-faces. 

But I have said enough to illustrate his 
character as a plucky, hearty, unaffected lad, 
affectionate towards his parents, and full of 
consideration for the youngsters of his own 
age with whom he was brought into contact. 
In 1874 Prince William and his brother went 
to a common public school, with uncommonly 
hard benches, amidst a lot of the odds and 
ends of German social life invariably to be 



20 HIS BOYHOOD. 

found in the national "Gymnasium." Let no 
one imagine this to be like attending Eton, 
where the expensive life limits the pupils to 
sons of comparatively rich people, and where 
an English prince can pass his time in luxury 
and comparative idleness. The schools of 
Germany are as inexorable in their require- 
ments as any other branch of its public ser- 
vice, and when Prince William took his seat 
amidst the German burghers' children at the 
public school it was with the understanding 
that he should submit to the same discipline 
as the rest, and receive his graduating diploma 
only upon the conscientious fulfilment of the 
prescribed course. 

Dr. Hinzpeter selected his school after hav- 
ing visited the head masters of many others, 
and found most of them completely unnerved 
at the idea of having a live prince amongst 
them. Cassel is about eight hours by rail 
from Berlin, a distance that meant a great 
deal to the Princes and their parents. The 
Court was incensed at the idea of the heir to 
the throne consorting with ordinary boys; Dr. 



HIS BOYHOOD. 21 

Hinzpeter was accused of introducing - revolu- 
tionary ideas into the educational curriculum 
of the Hohenzollerns; the old Emperor Wil- 
liam did not disguise his displeasure, and even 
the parents gave little more encouragement 
than their bare consent that the experiment 
should be tried. It was a bold game that Dr. 
Hinzpeter was playing; no Royal prince had 
ever been educated in a popular atmosphere, 
and nobody at Court wished him well in the 
undertaking. His reputation was at stake, for 
while in the event of failure every voice would 
cry out, "I told you so," even successfully 
carried out there would be little to show for 
his labor. The tutor held that for once in a 
lifetime, at least, a prince should feel what his 
subjects do; that he should share the school- 
boy interests of the every-day German and 
absorb the set of ideas that may enable him to 
strike the popular keynote when he sits upon 
the throne. For three years Prince William sat 
on the Cassel benches, i.e., until he successfully 
passed his final examination and was declared 
ripe for matriculation at the University. 



22 HIS BOYHOOD. 

These three years were years of torture to 
the tutor. He lived with them, but could not 
actively assist their studies, for that would 
have been unfair to the other boys. Teachers 
would rush to him in desperation to report this 
and that of their Royal pupil — what should they 
do ? They dared not reprimand the Lord's 
anointed ! Hinzpeter had to strengthen them, 
to encourage the Prince to more complete 
application. Those were days of tension when 
any moment might witness the destruction 
of the result hoped for. The Princes went 
to school and returned unattended. What 
if something happened to them on the way ? — 
a schoolboy quarrel, a blow, an "injury? — even 
so small a thing as that would have called the 
boys back to Berlin. What if a teacher had 
lost his head and a prince have raised rebellion 
in the schoolroom ? None of these things 
happened, but nothing seemed more likely to 
those who did not understand the precocious 
nature of Prince William's character and the 
devotion with which he pursued that which he 
considered his duty. And what this amounted 



HIS BOYHOOD. 23 

to may be measured by the fact that before 
entering upon his three years' school course 
he had to pass an examination far beyond that 
required for admission to Oxford or Cam- 
bridge, and that parallel to his daily tasks on 
the ''Gymnasium" benches were a series of 
special labors peculiar to the education of 
one soon destined to play a conspicuous part 
at a military Court — possibly to be its leader. 

The career of the Prince upon leaving Cas- 
sel in 1877 offers less of the exceptional and 
striking than when Dr. Hinzpeter guided his 
work, for upon entering the University he put 
off the habits of youth, said good-bye to his 
old tutor, and at once entered a field where 
all that met him were of a kind to force upon 
him the feeling that he was first a prince and 
lastly a student. For in Germany the avenue 
to most public employment and nearly all 
professional advancement lies through the Uni- 
versity, and consequently no class of people 
have a more sensitive nose for the Royal 
aroma than the gentlemen who boast loyalty 
only to the Muses. In Bonn he had the at- 



24 HIS BOYHOOD. 

tendance of a military aide, with whom he was 
on excellent terms, and who did probably but 
little to heighten the Prince's interest in the 
purely peaceful phases of national develop- 
ment. We may reasonably suppose that the 
enormous military energy which the Emperor 
developed shortly after leaving the academic 
groves partook somewhat of the nature of re- 
action from the constant contemplation of 
economic industry, a reaction that might be 
expected from one whose whole framework 
tingles with exhilaration in the idea of active, 
daring sport. 

The years that elapsed between" leaving Bonn 
and entering upon the responsibilities of gov- 
ernment, afforded him the opportunity of at- 
tending a series of lectures on modern history 
and the art of government such as falls to the 
lot of few of us, for the professors to whom he 
listened were William I., who had helped make 
modern history since the Battle of Waterloo, 
and Bismarck, the prince of modern statecraft. 

The venerable grandfather reviewed his his- 
toric past before the eager boy who was soon 



HIS BOYHOOD. 25 

to be his successor. Day after day the lectures 
succeeded one another, lectures of absorbing 
interest to the solitary student — and well noted 
down. Here he learned what motives had in- 
spired the elder William in the various critical 
moments of modern Prussian history; how in his 
youth he had been flushed with hope of consti- 
tutional liberty for Germany; how these hopes 
had been wrecked upon the incapacity of the 
people to control themselves; in the stormy 
days of 1848 he had bowed before all but uni- 
versal hatred and taken refuge in London; the 
same people that would have stoned him then 
made an idol of the hero of Sadowa in 1866. 
In all the phases of popular passion through 
which he had passed, one truth had been am- 
ply vindicated, namely, that fidelity to*Hohen- 
zollern tradition, uncompromising devotion to 
duty — these attributes of Royalty could not 
lead astray. That young William found in this 
lecture-room little sympathy for the teachings 
of Cobden or Benjamin Franklin may be read- 
ily imagined — the monarch who had ruled four 
years without Parliament, when Parliament 



26 HIS BOYHOOD. 

disobeyed his wishes, was not exactly suited to 
inoculate the young Imperial candidate with 
the principles of civil liberty, let alone free- 
trade and small armies. 

To secure the services of Professor Bismarck 
was not easy, for the Iron Chancellor felt him- 
self far too busy in adjusting the foreign rela- 
tions of Europe, and discovering Colonial land 
titles, to willingly enter the academic cathedra 
in favor of a prince who then had little pros- 
pect of ascending the throne of the Holy Ro- 
man Empire — at least until the lecturer should 
have lain many years in his vault. But the 
grandfather finally had his way, and day after 
day found these two closeted like little Lord 
Fauntleroy and the savage Earl, the Chancel- 
lor rapidly melting before the manifest capacity 
of the pupil to appreciate his epigrammatic 
sentences, and finally coming to relish the 
hour of instruction more, if possible, than his 
Royal student. Here, again, our young Em- 
peror learned at first-hand how to deal with 
obstinate Parliamentary segments, we cannot 
call them parties; how to measure public opin- 



HIS BOYHOOD. 27 

ion; how to influence foreign Cabinets; how 
this and that difficulty in the past were over- 
come, and what troubles may be looked for in the 
future. It is not to be expected that the Em- 
peror graduated in this course with any latent 
disposition to underestimate the value of bayo- 
nets in the economic evolution of the Empire. 
That the peaceful teachings of the scholarly 
Dr. Hinzpeter have been lost is too much to 
say, for the public utterances of the Emperor 
show that he remembers well the days spent 
in the contemplation of industrial institutions 
and museums. As a Hohenzollern Emperor, 
however, he recognizes completely that his 
Empire to-day amounts to no more than a roll 
of parchment unless he is prepared to fight 
any two enemies who may unite against him. 
Germany has fought her way up through 
bloody battles; and can only hope to maintain 
her present position by readiness to accept 
any challenge from the nations that snarl 
about her. Even members of her own house- 
hold have been in the field against Prussia, 
and the task of reconciling domestic political 



28 HIS BOYHOOD. 

differences is scarcely less than that of prepar- 
ing to meet a national war. 

The Emperor holds the future of Europe in 
his right hand — and how many are trying to 
peep through those strong fingers ! He is the 
head of the largest, the strongest, and the 
most intelligently guided army in the world, 
and is himself one of the most highly instruct- 
ed in that army. His mind is original, receiv- 
ing ideas from every quarter, allowing them to 
modify his views, but never to displace them. 
Many of the harsh opinions passed upon him 
shortly before ascending the throne would 
have been sensibly tempered had their authors 
known how completely did his political sense 
of duty to Germany dominate every personal 
consideration. 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

\T WILLIAM II. has been for three years 

* * emperor, and in this time has succeeded 
not only in winning the respect of foreign cab- 
inets but in strengthening himself at home.* 
He succeeded a father idolized by all who came 
within the sphere of his gentle and generous 
nature; his grandfather left behind a warlike 

* A press association furnished to the American papers 
of February 21, iSgi.a charge of intoxication at the dinner 
in his honor given by the Brandenburg Diet. This article 
was fabricated either in London or in New York, though 
headed Berlin. 

Such lies do more mischief than at first glance might be 
supposed, because, while a private man may occasionally 
venture to bring a libel action against an editor, the Ger- 
man Emperor has no such redress against the abuse of in- 
ternational courtesy. 

I may add that I have seen the Emperor on a dozen or 
more convivial occasions when, if ever, he might with im- 
punity have indulged the taste attributed to him by this ill- 
informed and poison-spirited scribe, and that on no occasion 
has he given grounds for such statements. 

29 



30 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

fame so great that only the age of Frederick 
II. can afford a parallel. The present Emperor 
has had, therefore, no easy task before him, for 
it has been necessary for him both to remove 
prejudice and to give the country confidence in 
his intentions as well as in his abilities. 

The secret of the Emperor's power with his 
own people arises mainly from three causes: 

First. He has courage. 

Second. He is honest. 

Third. He is a thorough German. 

If the whole country had to vote to-morrow 
for a leader embodying the qualities they most 
desired, their choice would fall unquestionably 
on their present constitutional ruler. Perhaps 
the virtues I have specified appear common- 
place, and will be taken for granted by the 
reader; but an emperor must be compared 
with others in the same trade. 

His honesty has been the cause of nearly all 
the malevolent criticism that outside papers 
have accorded him. for he has said freely what 
older or more politic people might have placed 
in a different way. He has made many minor 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 3 1 

mistakes from acting upon the impulse of the 
moment, but these mistakes have never be- 
trayed to his people a want of sympathy with 
their development. He has made his share of 
minor blunders in handling large masses of 
troops at the grand manoeuvers, but the army 
would be happy to see him make a thousand 
times as many rather than to miss the active 
interest he takes in keeping the military ma- 
chine in working order. 

Since Frederick the Great no king of Prus- 
sia has understood his business like this em- 
peror. He knows the routine of the public 
offices from having sat upon office stools. He 
knows what material development means from 
a practical inspection of foundries, mills, ship- 
yards, irrigating-works, canals, factories, and 
the rest of the places where the strength of a 
nation largely displays itself. He knows the 
army from having carried a knapsack, obeyed 
his superiors, and worked his way up like the 
every-day Prussian. If a new ship is to make 
a trial trip, he goes in person to learn some- 
thing new in naval construction. He has trav- 



32 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

eled in the most intelligent way the principal 
countries of the Old World, has come in con- 
tact with the men responsible for the state of 
affairs in Europe, and does not need to be 
prompted when a new ambassador presents his 
credentials. 

From a child he has been noted for his love 
of outdoor sport, and as emperor has directed 
the taste of the growing generation away 
from pipes and beer-pots and has led them 
to seek their pleasures in more manly recre- 
ation. 

The Emperor believes in force, and with 
good reason. Prussia has fought her way into 
the family of European nations at the point of 
the bayonet; it has taken her about 250 years 
of drilling and fighting to make Europe under- 
stand that she has come to stay: and the habits 
engendered by generations of barrack-room 
education cannot be altered in a few years. 
Not only does the Emperor believe in force, 
but his Germans almost to a man hold the 
same creed. The people of the fatherland all 
serve in the ranks, not merely because their 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 33 

Kaiser wishes it but because they themselves 
are convinced that this sacrifice is the only 
one that can guarantee them against invasion. 
The universal service is to-day the most pop- 
ular institution in Germany; and while outcry 
is made against particular abuses in the army, 
and many desire to have the term of service 
reduced, no government could live a day that 
attempted to abolish it altogether. The pub- 
lie language, therefore, which the Emperor 
uses, sounds strangely autocratic when read 
in the columns of one of our dailies, but calls 
forth no such reflection in Berlin. 

No man in his position has in so short a time 
expressed himself so freely on so many im- 
portant topics as he, and if I have convinced 
the reader that his words are those of an honest 
and fearless man, I need offer no apology for 
quoting some of his own language as evidence 
that he is not devoid of judgment. 

On the 15th of June, 1888, William II. suc- 
ceeded to the throne as German Emperor 
and King of Prussia. On the 25th he met the 



34 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

members of the imperial parliament, and gave 
them the assurance that he meant to govern 
according to the constitution, and to carry out 
vigorously all engagements, at home or 
abroad, connected with the welfare of the 
country. On the 27th he met the Prussian 
house of representatives, and, as King of 
Prussia, defined his position as head of the 
state more clearly still. 

" I am far," said he, " from wishing to disturb 
the faith of the people in the permanency of 
our constitutional position by efforts to enlarge 
the royal prerogative. The present rights of 
the crown, so long as they are not invaded, 
are sufficient to assure the amount of monarch- 
ical influence required by Prussia, according to 
the present state of things, according to its 
position in the Empire, and according to the 
feelings and associations of the people. It is 
my opinion that our constitution contains a 
just and useful distribution of the cooperation 
of the different political forces, and I shall on 
that account, and not merely because of my 
oath of office, maintain and protect it." 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 35 

Opinions differ, even in Germany, as to the 
best distribution of political forces, but every 
Prussian, and every German as well, breathed 
more freely when their emperor had spoken 
the blunt words I have translated. The peo- 
ple were already beginning to feel that while 
they had to deal with a man who could. fight for 
his own, he was, at least, not disposed to claim 
more than was his by law. The whole of that 
address is instinct with individual conviction, 
but much of its force was lost to the outside 
world because few knew how much of it was 
meant. When, for instance, he closes by 
promising to be the " first servant of the state," 
it was looked upon as a conventional figure of 
speech, such as even a Prince of Wales 
might use. How few then thought that he 
would work with an energy and persistence 
that would wear out any two ordinary ser- 
vants; that he would have his study lamp burn- 
ing long before the kitchen-maids of Berlin 
yawned themselves out of bed; that he would 
in person wait upon the drill-grounds of his 
regiments to see that punctuality was ob- 



36 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

served; that he would be accessible to every 
complaint, whether from a day laborer or cabi- 
net minister. 

Like others in commanding positions, he is 
taxed heavily for all that he utters in public, 
but no one tells us of what he is in private. Be- 
cause as head of the army he draws his sword 
he is charged with warlike ambition; if on the 
other hand he looks into the troubles of the 
day laborers he is attacked as a socialist in dis- 
guise; if he travels to visit his neighbors the 
paragraphers make merry over his perpetual 
junketing. The papers of England have hard- 
ly yet forgiven him for the crimes they imagine 
he committed while his father was at San 
Remo, though it has been abundantly proved 
that he acted as a loyal son and subject. 

On the 16th of August, 1888, he made a few 
remarks at Frankfort on the Oder that set all 
tongues wagging as though he had already 
signed a declaration of war. 

"Let me add one thing more," said he. 
"Gentlemen, there are people so weak as to 
say that my father thought of giving back what 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 37 

we conquered with the sword. We knew him 
all too well to accept coolly such a slander up- 
on his memory. He was with us in thinking 
that nothing secured by the mighty efforts of 
those times should be given up. 

" I believe that we of the Third Army 
Corps, as well as the whole army, know that 
on this subject there is but one voice : let us 
rather lose our eighteen army corps and forty- 
two million inhabitants on the field than give 
up a single stone of that which my father and 
Prince Frederick Charles have won." 

This is not pleasant reading in Paris, but it 
is the kind of language I should expect to hear 
in New York if any philanthropic movement 
was on foot to hand Texas or Arizona back 
to Mexico. It is just the language that would 
be heard in London if an attempt were made 
to restore to France, not Alsace-Lorraine, but 
the Channel Islands. 

Shortly after this much-abused speech came 
the great autumn manceuvers, at which two 
corps of about 30,000 men each, equipped as 
for real war, were made to fight one against 



38 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

the other, and to solve in an unknown coun- 
try all the difficulties of a real campaign. Un- 
der the old Emperor William these manceu- 
vers had of late years become rather perfunc- 
tory, because of his advanced years and his 
indisposition to make radical changes. The 
Emperor Frederick was of course too feeble to 
make any personal impression on the army dur- 
ing his three months of office, and all Ger- 
many looked with eagerness to see what their 
new emperor would do when commanding 
large bodies for the first time, and under con- 
ditions that would test in some degree his abil- 
ity to command in real war. He had of course 
in the field veteran generals of three great 
wars, and a man of less courage could have 
readily found an excuse for taking a merely 
conventional part in these operations. But the 
Emperor dreamed of nothing less than this. 
From the beginning to the end of the seven- 
days' fighting I was able to watch him closely, 
and even a layman in warfare could note the 
extraordinary independence with which he 
made his dispositions, the coolness with which 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 39 

he met sudden emergencies, the attention he 
was able to give to detail, and the energy with 
which he appeared at every point of difficulty. 
Did he make any mistakes ? I presume so; 
I hope so, at least. And every soldier who 
saw him in those days blessed him for making 
them there rather than in the presence of a 
real enemy. He was learning to use his great 
military machine, and every German felt better 
at hearing that their Kaiser showed talent for 
his work. What if he did miscalculate the ex- 
act front that a division should occupy in an 
attack ? what if he did bring his cavalry a bit 
too soon upon the enemy's infantry ? The 
very fact of his doing so on this occasion was 
the best assurance that it would not happen in 
real war. 

On the 14th of May, 1889, before he had been 
a year on the throne, he received a deputation 
of dissatisfied workmen, and, two days later, a 
similar body of employers. He spoke to each 
practically, briefly, sharply. He did not pat 
the employers on the back and order the work- 



40 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

ingmen 'about their business, nor did .he seek 
to curry favor with the mob by using the de- 
lusive phrases so common with politicians on 
the eve of political elections. What he said to 
each gave no pleasure to either, but, spoken as 
it was, honestly and for the good. of both, it has 
given workmen and their employers through- 
out Germany a feeling of confidence in the 
Government as a judge in matters industrial. 

To the workmen he said : 

" Every subject who has a desire to express 
has of course the ear of his emperor. I have 
shown this in giving you permission to come 
here and tell your wants personally. But you 
have put yourselves in the wrong; your move- 
ment is against law, if only because you have 
not abided by the fourteen-days' notice re- 
quired to be given before striking. You have 
therefore broken your contract. Naturally this 
breaking of your engagement has irritated the 
employers, and does them a wrong. Further- 
more, workmen who did not desire to strike 
have been prevented from working either by 
violence or threats." 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 41 

He summed up the wrong they had done, 
but nevertheless promised to have the matter 
thoroughly investigated. It is needless to say 
that he kept his word. When the employers 
came before him, no doubt expecting sympa- 
thy as against strikers, they were taken to task 
more cuttingly still for their selfishness. " I 
beg of you," said the emperor, " take pains to 
give workingmen a chance to present their 
grievances in a formal manner. ... It is nat- 
ural and human that each one should seek to 
better himself. Workmen read newspapers 
and know the relation that their wages bear to 
the profits of the company. It is obvious that 
they should desire to have some share of this." 

Were these utterances the dictation of a po- 
litical economist paid for jogging the imperial 
elbow in matters industrial they would deserve 
only the attention accorded to official papers 
read from the throne. But when they reflect 
the convictions of a ruler bent upon solving 
questions that are tormenting every industrial 
community, they are remarkable. 

During the grand manceuvers of 1889 he re- 



42 TllE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

ceived a delegation of university professors and 
took the occasion to set the country thinking 
as to whether the present system of education 
could not be improved. " The more thorough- 
ly and energetically the people understand his- 
tory," said he, " the more clearly will they un- 
derstand their position; and in this way they 
will be trained to united feeling in the presence 
of great undertakings." The language is not 
obscure to a German, who remembers the pe- 
riod of oppression under Napoleon I. and the 
many years that had to pass before the people 
educated themselves to act and to think as one 
man in the struggle for unity. The Emperor 
has since taken means to put into practice the 
ideas he expressed to the professors of Gottin- 
gen, and Germans must thank him that the 
rising generation are permitted to form their 
ideals not merely from Greeks and Romans of 
very shadowy interest but from the flesh-and- 
blood patriots of these days — the Scharnhorsts, 
the Bluchers, the Gneisenaus, the Steins, the 
Colombs, Liitzows, and other heroes of the 
great war of liberation. 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 43 

Shortly after the manceuvers of 1889 he re- 
ceived our minister, William Walter Phelps, in 
a manner more than complimentary, saying, 
among other things: " From childhood I have 
admired the great and expanding community 
you represent; and the study of your history, 
both in peace and war, has given me particular 
pleasure. Among the many conspicuous char- 
acteristics of your fellow citizens the world ad- 
mires in particular their spirit of enterprise, 
their respect for law, and their inventiveness. 
Germans feel themselves the more drawn to 
the people of the United States because of the 
many ties that inevitably accompany kinship 
of blood. The feeling which both countries 
entertain most strongly is that of relationship 
and friendship of long standing; and the fu- 
ture can only strengthen the heartiness of our 
relations." 

This, I venture to say, is the most friendly 
language ever used by a German ruler or cabi- 
net towards the United States, and it gains the 
more in value by coming from the mouth of a 
man who would not have said anything that he 



44 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

did not fully mean. The personal regard en- 
tertained for Mr. Phelps made the Emperor's 
language perhaps more easy for him; but in 
addition to that, I am sure that few Germans 
who have not traveled in America are better in- 
formed of our conditions, our history, our re- 
sources, and our literature than he. When 
" Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" ap- 
peared, it was read by him with interest; as an 
officer in the army he attended courses of lec- 
tures on our principal military operations; and 
only within the past few months he was discuss- 
ing with an American George Ken nan's work 
on the treatment of Siberian exiles. 

In February, 1890, he issued an order the 
gist of which is in these words: " In my army 
each individual soldier shall receive lawful, 
just, and humane treatment." This order was 
unexpected, for the army did not appear at the 
time to suffer more than ordinarily from the 
excesses of non-commissioned officers or even 
of commissioned officers. But it is the Em- 
peror's habit to find out for himself what is go- 
ing on in barrack-yards as well as in the cabi- 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 45 

net. He does not wait until official red tape 
has permitted the Government to notice an 
abuse, or until dissatisfaction has spread. His 
language in this order has not made men more 
humane, but it has certainly made the brutal 
more cautious about venting their brutality, 
and this is as much as human law can hope 
for. 

In the same month he calls together a con- 
gress of interested nations to see if something 
cannot be done to avoid the increasing friction 
between wage-payers and wage-earners. This 
congress may or may not achieve all that some 
have hoped for it. The Emperor himself did 
not offer to solve any question of social phi- 
losophy; his attitude was strictly that of an in- 
quirer. He virtually said to the delegates: 
" Gentlemen, the industrial situation of Europe 
is critical. Let us discuss it calmly, let us offer 
suggestions, let us see if the question is ca- 
pable of simpler definition." 

Whether anything comes of this effort, the 
fact is remarkable that the most conspicuous 
public effort of a young and powerful emperor 



46 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

has been to interfere in behalf of the daily la- 
borers. 

On the 20th of March, 1890, Bismarck left 
his office of Prime, or rather sole, Minister. I 
do not wish to enter upon this question here, 
except to point out that he left office imme- 
diately after a popular election which resulted 
in more votes for socialist candidates than were 
ever before cast in the history of the empire. 
He was in a hopeless minority in the Reichs- 
tag, and had proved to the satisfaction of his 
countrymen that, whatever his merits were as 
a foreign minister, they dwindled painfully 
when it came to treating the more delicate 
questions of finance, socialism, press laws, and 
internal improvement. 

During the labor conference the Emperor 
showed marked civilities to the French dele- 
gate, Jules Simon, and afterward sent him as a 
present the musical works of Frederick the 
Great, accompanied by a most cordial letter. 
This was an opportunity offered to France to 
say something that might be regarded as a 
harbinger of peace; to cease the snarling over 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 47 

Alsace-Lorraine that has been kept up for 
twenty years, and promises to continue until 
after the next war. Germany was disappointed 
in the result, for France showed that she has 
now only one political faith, the basis of which 
is hate. From the salons of the Faubourg St. 
Germain to the attics of Montmartre, there is 
but one feeling — France has had her vanity 
wounded; therefore Europe must expect no 
rest until she has had her revenge. 

In 1890, on the 9th of August, Heligoland 
was added to the Empire without a blow or 
even an angry word. What Gibraltar is to 
Spain, that and much more was this little isl- 
and at the mouth of her principal seaport to 
Germany. The peaceful accomplishment of so 
important an object is not so much an evidence 
of his desire to strengthen his coast-line as of 
the fact that England and Germany are to-day 
united in a friendship unknown since the year 
when Bliicher and Wellington fought the 
French at Waterloo. 

I have not spoken of the Emperor's travels 
in detail, for want of space. In general it may 



48 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

be said that no ruler of modern times has seen 
so much of the world, and made the fruit of his 
travels so directly profitable to his people. 
He has not merely traveled to distant coun- 
tries, from the North Cape to the Golden 
Horn, and from the Thames to the Gulf of Fin- 
land. His acquaintance with his own country 
is no less thorough. He masters readily the 
industrial features of every neighborhood that 
he visits, and it is rare for him to meet a man 
with whom he cannot talk instructively on the 
country or town that he represents. He does 
not waste time in these travels, "but has a rail- 
way train fitted somewhat after the pattern of 
the Chicago limited vestibule. On the way he 
despatches state business, and discusses, as he 
flies along, any proposition requiring signature. 
His yacht serves him when afloat as conven- 
iently as his train ashore, and both are so well 
used as to be always in the best working con- 
dition. 

As an after-dinner speaker the Emperor has 
no superior in Germany. He speaks readily 
without notes, expresses himself with vigor, 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 49 

never descends to conventional commonplaces, 
and, above all, gives the very best assurance 
that his words are not prepared for him. I 
have heard conspicuous speakers in England 
and in our own country, and, if comparisons 
are not in this case invidious, I should say that 
the German Emperor need not fear to meet 
such an audience as even a New England So- 
ciety dinner assembles. One of the prettiest 
speeches I have listened to was delivered by 
the Emperor in answering the toast to his wife 
in the province where she was born. It was 
during the great combined naval and military 
manceuvers of 1890, at which the United States 
was represented by Commander Ward, and 
Great Britain by Admiral Hornby. 

The Emperor's words were : " I desire to 
express to you, my dearest sir, the gratitude 
felt by the Empress and myself for the kind 
words we have just heard; at the same time 
our thanks to the whole for the day we have 
passed and for the reception which the prov- 
ince has prepared for us. This day was, how- 
ever, not needed in order to assure us of the 



50 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

warm friendship we have found here. The 
bond that unites me to this province, and 
chains me to her in a manner different from all 
others of my Empire, is the jewel that sparkles 
at my side, her Majesty the Empress. Sprung 
from this soil, the type of the various virtues 
of a German princess, it is to her that I owe it 
if I am able to meet the severe labors of my 
office with a happy spirit, and make head 
against them." 

The words of the Emperor were unexpected, 
and to no one more so than to his wife, whose 
face beamed with happiness at the compliment 
she so publicly received. Nor did any one 
who listened to the speaker at that dinner 
think to question the spontaneity and honesty 
of the language. 

In spite of the pomp that custom demands 
of an imperial court, the German Emperor is a 
man of singularly simple and healthy tastes. 
When he is out of office-hours his recreation is 
largely taken with his children in their nur- 
sery, or dropping in at the house of a personal 
friend and begging a cup of tea and a cozy 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 5 1 

chat. He knows the value of knowledge, and 
while the machinery of his Government pro- 
vides him with elaborate reports on every sub- 
ject and from every corner of the world, he 
still prefers to study his people at first-hand, and 
never loses an opportunity of seeing for himself 
what is going on about him. He reads, of course, 
all the new books of importance; sees the good 
plays, and assists in bringing forward such as 
have merit; he takes pleasure in running into 
artists' workshops at unexpected hours; is ready 
to meet any one who has an idea of interest. 

When I think of him as the business man- 
ager of a practical political corporation, I am 
constantly inclined to look for the key to his 
success and popularity in Germany by quoting 
the laconic opinion of him expressed by an 
American officer who was presented to him for 
the first time at the Baltic manceuvers in 1890. 
He came away from his audience flushed with 
excitement, and I expected a vigorous report 
from the fact that this officer had been drawing 
his impressions of Germany principally from 
Paris and St. Petersburg. 



52 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 

" What do you think of him now ? " I said. 
"Immense; he has a genuine Yankee head 

on him." 

It only need be added that this compliment 
was the highest in the court vocabulary of my 
fellow countryman. 



HIS ARMY. 

/^ ERMANY awaits from day to day the 
^--* signal to mobilize her troops and march 
to the frontiers. The signal has been success- 
fully postponed through great efforts of great 
men; but great men grow old and do not 
always leave behind them successors equal to 
their tasks. Bismarck has labored in the 
cause of peace until even he will be forced 
to admit that Imperial kisses, like promissory 
notes, can not always be taken at their face 
value. France had to fight Germany alone in 
1870; this time she is counting on a Muscovite 
ally. Germany has prepared herself, there- 
fore, to send part of her army against Moscow, 
another part against Paris, and the balance to 
keep the Danes from interference or watch the 
Socialists at home. The first cost of putting 
the nation on a war footing will be met by the 

coin treasure stored in the vaults of the Span- 

53 



54 HIS ARMY. 

dau citadel, close to Berlin, a treasure, by the 
way, largely paid over by France as indemnity 
for the last war. 

To reduce wearisome figures to their least 
objectionable proportions, the active war 
strength of Germany means: 

Officers 48,122 

Medical officers 7,602 

Miscellaneous officials 12,957 

Non-com. officers and men . . . .2,165,950 



Making a total of 2,234,631 

of all ranks. 

To which we can add: 

Horses 439759 

Field guns 3,558 

Siege guns I ,75 2 

Other carriages 58,316 

The above figures do not include the staffs 
and personnel of the stay-at-home army es- 
tablishments, the seven hundred thousand 
trained men of the Second Reserves, called 
Landsturm, and the railway staff, made up 
largely of old soldiers, amounting to about 



HIS ARMY. 55 

three hundred thousand men — for I have not 

been able to get official figures on this matter. 

We may analyze Germany's war strength in 

this way — and these figures, I may add, are 

not merely on paper as they were once in 

France, to her cost. 

551 Battalions ) 

> of Infantry and Rifles. 
31 Companies ) 

573 Squadrons of Cavalry. 

593 Batteries. 

74-i- Battalions of foot Artillery. 

208 Companies of Pioneers. 

37 Companies of railway troops. 

341 Ammunition columns. 

55 Divisional bridge trains. 

19 Corps bridge trains. 

25 Telegraph sections. 

287 Commissariat columns. 

For such as wish more detailed information on this sub- 
ject I cannot too highly recommend " The War Strength of 
Germany," by Captain Grierson, of the Royal Artillery, 
an officer who is regarded in Germany, and at home, as an 
authority of the first rank in military matters, and to whom 
I am glad to acknowledge my indebtedness for the verifica- 
tion of nearly all the statements not coming within my per- 
sonal experience. — P. B. 



56 HIS ARMY. 

94 Bearer columns. 

41 Bakery columns and detachments. 

19 Horse depots. 
341 Field hospitals. 

19 Depot Abtheihingen. 
The Recruit. — Every German is bound to 
assist in the defence of his fatherland, not 
merely by the payment of taxes, which we all 
do, but by qualifying himself to take his place 
in the ranks and spill his blood, like any other 
soldier, when war breaks out. We all recog- 
nize the propriety of a free man defending his 
person, his family and his house from attack; 
but Germany is the first nation of modern 
times that has carried this view to its logical 
conclusion, and organized the whole people in 
the manner most likely to protect it against 
assault from all quarters. The burden is 
heavy, but appears to Germans less grievous 
than to us, for they have faith in the good 
which results from their sacrifice; they know 
that the weight falls on all, rich and poor 
alike; their fathers consented to it because in 
that way only could they resist the tyranny of 



HIS ARMY. 57 

the first Napoleon, and it is not fair for the 
men of to-day to complain when they remem- 
ber the wonders they did in the war against 
Napoleon III. 

From his 17th to 25th year the army has a 
lien on every German — during these years he 
cannot emigrate without special permission — 
and that this permission is difficult to procure 
may be inferred from the fact that in the re- 
cruiting returns of 1885, no less than 18,000 
were noted as having escaped their obligations 
by clandestine emigration. 

The ordinary man has to serve three years 
with the colors, as that time is considered nec- 
essary in order to make a real soldier of the 
average country lad. Those, however, who 
have passed high academical examinations, 
and show that they are of superior mental ca- 
pacity can be free at the end of one year, al- 
though for this privilege they have to clothe 
themselves and take care of themselves as well. 
Of course good physical health and build are 
assumed. No soldier is accepted less than 5 
feet x /> inches high, and the crack regiments 



58 HIS ARMY. 

make 5 feet 6 T V inches their minimum, except- 
ing for light cavalry, where weight is limited 
to 142 lbs., the heavy cavalry allowing up to 
153 lbs. Such as do not come up to the 
"fighting requirements " are relegated to gar- 
rison work of practical if not glorious char- 
acter. 

Exemptions. — Special reasons sometimes 
release a German from serving in the army — 
or at least obtain for him a postponement of 
service — as, for instance, if he is: 

1. The only son of destitute parents. 

2. The son of a farmer or manufacturer who 
, would be unable to superintend his work 

without his son's services. . 

3. The next eldest brother to one killed in war, 

or of one who has lost health while on 
duty, if by such postponement the lot of 
the latter is ameliorated, 

4. Those engaged in the study of art as a pro- 

fession, whose career would suffer damage 
if such studies were interrupted. 

And one or two others in the same spirit. 

The State, in other words, recognizes no 



HIS ARMY. 59 

distinction between rich and poor, noble and 
peasant, in the matter of defending the com- 
mon fatherland; and where an exception is 
made, it is obviously on the principle that no 
man should be withdrawn from industrial work 
if the community in general is to be a sufferer 
in consequence. No man in Germany is rich 
enough to buy a substitute, or too poor to 
claim immunity if he shows legal ground. 

Rfxruit Education. — The German mili- 
tary year closes with the last day of the grand 
fall manceuvers, when the soldiers who have 
completed their period of service return to 
their homes, and the recruits of the y*ear are 
called in to fill their places. Patiently and 
slowly they are taken in hand and taught the 
elements of their profession, their instructors 
knowing well the importance of what they are 
about, and the searching inspection they will 
have to stand when the new men are passed 
as fit to march in the ranks. All of the winter 
up to March of the following year is given to 
individual and elementary instruction. March 
and April are devoted to company drills, bat- 



60 HIS ARMY. 

talion drill coming in May. June and July 
give the recruits a chance to see field service. 
In August come regimental and brigade work, 
and last of all, September, they take part in 
their first grand manceuvers. 

The great importance which the Germans 
attach to the education of their soldiers must 
be my excuse for dwelling a little on this 
point. To begin with, then, the raw recruits 
are distributed fifty to a company, and placed 
under the entire charge of a specially selected 
officer, who has under him four or five under- 
officers and the same number of lance cor- 
porals *as assistant instructors. Each under- 
officer gets from ten to thirteen men to instruct. 
Whoever has seen West Point cadets drilling 
the freshly arrived " plebes," can form a picture 
of what constitutes most of the early training 
of the German recruit. 

His work commences light, but is soon in- 
creased to three hours in the forenoon (8-u) 
and two hours (2-4) in the afternoon, the even- 
ing being devoted to an hour's theoretical 
instruction. As at West Point and Annapolis, 



HIS ARMY. 6l 

the most important early work consists in 
making the muscles supple by a variety of 
gymnastic movements, with the rifle as a club. 

The third week brings promotion to the use 
of gymnastic appliances, such as the vaulting 
horse, parallel and horizontal bars, poles, lad- 
ders and ropes; and these exercises are also 
applied to real war by making the men climb 
walls, vault ditches, and work their way up 
difficult slopes — in all these exercises the in- 
structor setting the men an example, a good 
rule always observed at West Point. 

The rifle is given to the recruit in the fourth 
week, and the manual commences and con- 
tinues until, in March, the new men are con- 
sidered fit for inspection, which is always an 
occasion for some festivity, when the captain 
of the company presents the newly trained 
men to the regimental commander in the 
presence of the officer who has had them un- 
der his special care. Each man is put through 
his drill, the whole squad then march past, 
are drilled together, the commander makes a 
short, encouraging speech to them, and they 



62 HIS ARMY. 

are placed formally in the ranks of the 
company. 

By the time summer comes around they are 
taken on long tramps into the country, are 
taught to choose their ground with judgment, 
to throw up earthworks, build a camp, skir- 
mish, do outpost duty and reconnoitre. Every 
man is taught to swim, and gymnastics are 
not neglected. 

Much importance is attached to the verbal 
explanations which officers are expected to 
give their men in regard to that which they 
are learning in the field. When a boy I re- 
member well seeing in the fields about Pots- 
dam the troops incessantly drilling, and par- 
ticularly the little groups of soldiers about 
their officer, who, with some rude tracings in 
the sand, was illustrating a short lecture on 
field fortifications. 

Thus the education of the soldier goes on 
hour by hour, step by step, until the fall of the 
year comes around once more, and with it the 
field exercises on a large scale, which imitate 
real war in many respects, and inure the men 



HIS ARMY. 63 

to the work of forced marches, camping out 
in all weathers and overcoming real ob- 
stacles.* 

The German Emperor, as actual Command- 
er-in-Chief, takes active part in these mimic 
wars, sometimes commands a division of cav- 
alry, sometimes a complete army corps. He 
is the first on the field, the stimulus to all ex- 
ertion throughout the day, and the last to rest. 
He is never satisfied with what has been, real- 
izing that new inventions in war are as much 
to be taken into account as any other force, 

* German infantry quick step is .8 metres (31)^ inches), 
and the time 112 to the minute. 

Cavalry traverse in a minute at a walk 125 paces (of .8 
metres or 31^ inches each); at a trot 300, and at a gallop 
500 paces. 

Infantry march four abreast. 

Cavalry " three do. 

An infantry division with its first line baggage occupies 
about five miles of road, and with its second line about 
seven and a half miles. Including its trains (one artillery 
and one infantry ammunition column, one provision column, 
one wagon park column and two field hospitals), it occupies 
twelve miles of road; an army corps with its columns and 
trains complete, 32 miles of road — let us say from City 
Hall to Sing Sing. 

Under favorable circumstances, a large mixed body of 
troops make a kilometer (^m.) in twelve minutes. 



64 HIS ARMY. 

and that to have the best army in Europe he 
must have also the most enterprising body of 
officers. At the 1889 manceuvers, for example, 
he ordered experiments with smokeless powder 
and portable steel forts, the latter by no 
means a welcome innovation to .the average 
artillerist. 

Soldier Pay. — The army is not, in Ger- 
many, a career of pecuniary profit. The rate 
of wages per month is, for a 

Sergeant-Major $15 00 

Sergeant 9 00 

Musician 4 00 

Private 2 50 

The private is allowed usually about four 
cents a day for mess, in addition to one pound 
ten and two-thirds ounces of coarse bread. To 
this is added about three cents more, which is 
deducted from his monthly pay, and on this 
combination, which is managed with scrupu- 
lous economy, he manages to look well fed at 
least, and to do a good deal of hard work. The 
decorations which a German soldier earns 
mean cash to him also, for they carry with them 



HIS ARMY. 65 

usually monthly allowances ranging from sev- 
enty-five cents to two dollars and twenty-five 
cents, in addition to his regular pay. 

A great inducement offered to soldiers for 
good conduct is the prospect that, if they re- 
enlist and are thereafter discharged honorably 
the Government provides for them by holding 
open official positions worth from ten dollars 
a month in the case of a private to twenty-five 
dollars a month in the case of a sergeant-major. 
Non - commissioned officers who have had 
twelve years of active service, and behaved 
well, become entitled to employment as State 
officials. 

This is an arrangement most excellent for 
the discharged soldier, but of questionable value 
to some branches of the public service. Per- 
haps the inefficiency of the German railway 
system, for instance, as compared with that of 
the United States and England, is partially 
traceable to this arrangement, by which rail- 
road men are extemporized from ex-sergeants 
and corporals. 

As to clothing, the Kaiser treats his men 



66 HIS ARMY. 

right royally by giving them five suits apiece, 
two of which the soldier has with him, the oth- 
er three being kept in the company stores for 
extraordinary occasions like a grand review, 
or Sunday in town. When the soldier marches 
to war he has on his back the very best of 
these five suits. About his neck he carries a 
tin tag for purposes of identification. In the 
skirt of his tunic is sewed a roll of antiseptic 
bandage and in his knapsack a hymn book. 
His load, including everything, represents 64 
lbs. 4 oz., a figure that makes me stagger as I 
write. 

Special Branches. — The American civil 
war first taught Europe the practical value of 
railways as facilitating military operations, and 
no nation has taken this lesson more seri- 
ously to itself than Germany, which now has 
special troops drilled for this work alone. In 
fact she has a railway running 30 miles out of 
Berlin, built and operated entirely by soldiers. 
It has four stations; crosses sixteen masonry 
bridges, three iron bridges and six culverts. 
The traffic manager is a field officer, who is 



HIS ARMY. 67 

assisted by three lieutenants. The engine staff 
is composed of nine under officers as engine 
drivers and eighteen privates as stokers. The 
train staff comprises twenty-four under officers 
as conductors and forty-eight privates as brake- 
men. 

One company at a time is employed on this 
line, the captain acting as traffic inspector; the 
other officers as line inspectors and under offic- 
ers as station masters. 

I might never have seen this railway but for 
a canoe cruise which brought me one fine after- 
noon under a railway culvert of which my map 
gave no satisfactory information. To satisfy 
myself on this point I left my boat, climbed up 
a steep embankment, and to my surprise saw a 
soldier close to me, but with his back turned — 
whose attention by the way I took good care 
not to attract, for I had no mind to be stopped 
for a spy or dynamiter at this place. So I slip- 
ped back to my canoe as quietly as possible 
and paddled noiselessly down the narrow 
stream until, at a safe distance from uniforms I 
was able to learn that I had just passed under 



68 HIS ARMY. 

the military railway leading from the Capital 
to an artillery testing ground called Kummers- 
dorf — a terminus that completely excludes any 
idea that this road might earn dividends by 
passenger traffic. 

The drill of railway troops includes of course 
construction and demolition, and the Govern- 
ment does not stint them for the requisite ma- 
terial. Entire companies are also employed 
under their own officers in constructing and 
repairing lines for the State. In 1882, for in- 
stance, a detachment constructed the new line 
between Hirschberg and Schmiedberg in Si- 
lesia, and they are frequently employed in 
repairing embankments and bridges damaged 
by floods or accidents. Every year a detach- 
ment goes to the military riding school at 
Hanover to give the officers there special in- 
structions in the art of repairing and demolish- 
ing railways and telegraphs, and at the grand 
manceuvers they are called upon to give an 
illustration of what they can accomplish in a 
short time in the way of entraining horses and 
men, or constructing short lines. 



HIS ARMY. 69 

The railway authorities in the German war 
department are constantly seeking the means 
of forwarding men and material with greater 
rapidity, for at present much remains to be 
done in this department. Infantry are allowed, 
officially, one hour to entrain; cavalry and 
field artillery, two; and columns, say baggage 
and ammunition trains, three hours. The 
normal speed of German military trains is only 
fifteen miles an hour, allowing from 100 to no 
axles to the train. For war purposes it is ex- 
pected that one axle will represent a load 
equivalent to twelve officers, or sixteen men, or 
three horses with one man, or one light car- 
riage, or half a heavy carriage. The tyvo axled 
third class carriages hold forty men; officers' 
horses go six; troops' horse, eight to the car. 
On the official basis, one German military train 
will carry: 

One infantry battalion, with regimental or 
brigade staff; or, one rifle battalion; or, one 
squadron, with regimental or brigade staff; or, 
one and one-half squadrons; or, one field bat- 
tery, with regimental or Abtheilung staff; five- 



JO HIS ARMY. 

sixths a horse battery; one and one-half pio- 
neer companies, with a divisional bridge train. 
It will give some idea of the amount of 
railroading the Germans look for in the next 
war, if we put together the number of railway 
trains required to transport one army corps 
alone — say 30,003 men — of which there are now 
twenty. 

No. of 
Trains 

Headquarters and details 2 

2 divisional headquarters and field bak- 
ery . 2 

25 battalions of infantry, with brigade 

regimental staffs 25 

2 cavalry regiments (eight squadrons) 6 
12 batteries divisional artillery ... 12 

3 batteries corps artillery 3 

2 batteries corps horse artillery . . . 2]/ 2 

2 divisional bridge trains, with three 

pioneer companies 2 

3 sanitary detachments 1% 

4 infantry and six artillery ammunition 

columns 10 

5 provision columns 5 



HIS ARMY. 71 



No. of 
Trains. 



I corps bridge trains 2 

1 horse depot 1 

12 field hospitals 4 

5 wagon park columns 15 

4 trains with supplies for first needs . 4 

Making a total of ninety-seven trains for only 
one-twentieth of the army; or, for the whole 
army, 1,940 trains, which would reach from 

New York to , but I leave this calculation 

for the experts in such matters."* 

Germany's pioneer and railway troops com- 
prise in time of peace: 

19 Battalions of pioneers (4 companies to 

battalion). 
1 Company of telegraphists. 
1 Railway regiment of 4 battalions. 
1 Railway battalion of 2 companies. 
1 Balloon detachment. 
The balloon detachment is attached to the 

*The reader who cares to pursue this subject with 
special reference to American conditions should consult 
chapter IV. of " Principles of Strategy," by Lieut. Bigelovv, 
U. S. Calvary (Ed. 1891). The experience gained in our 
civil war is there applied to modern requirements. 



J2 HIS ARMY. 

railway regiment, and possesses all the estab- 
lishments required for making and filling bal- 
loons. A carrier pigeon establishment with 
fifty birds is attached to the detachment sta- 
tioned at Berlin — other stations for carrier 
pigeons are at Cologne, Poser), Thorn, Wiirz- 
burg, Mayence, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, Danzig 
and Tonning, with two hundred pigeons to the 
station. Metz and Strasburg have each six 
hundred pigeons. 

Dogs are now also used to carry messages 
from the outposts to the main body. 

Each army corps has in its divisional and 
corps bridge trains sufficient equipment to 
throw a bridge from six hundred and thirty- 
six to six hundred and seventy feet. As a 
rule, half a day is reckoned upon as the time 
required to throw a bridge with the bridge 
trains of an army corps. 

The outpost telegraph apparatus consists of 
two Morse instruments, a battery of ten 
Daniel's elements and two drums, each with 
five hundred and fifty yards of cable. The 
diameter of the cable is .117 and its weight 



HIS ARMY. 73 

16.64 f° r the length of five hundred and fifty 
yards — the weight in box 24.2 lbs. The 
Morse instruments each weigh 10.45 l° s -> are 
automatic, and adapted for continuous cur- 
rents. 

One non-commissioned officer and two men 
suffice to work the outpost telegraph. One 
man remains at the initial station with the 
battery and one of the instruments, while the 
other moves forward, paying out one cable 
from a drum carried in his hands, with the 
other drum on a special knapsack. The non- 
commissioned officer accompanies the latter 
man and carries the second instrument. The 
two cables can be paid out and both stations 
connected up in ten minutes, and fifteen to 
twenty minutes are required to roll up again. 
Of these outpost telegraphs Germany possess- 
ed sixty sets in 1879. 

In the army are also used movable electric 
search lights and illuminating apparatus com- 
posed of a Dolgoruki engine, a Hefner- Alte- 
neck dynamo electric machine, and a Siemen's 
reflector for use in siege or field warfare. This 



74 HIS ARMY. 

is all in addition to the fixed electric light ap- 
paratus or search light used in fortresses and 
coast batteries. 

German Officers. — All European armies 
are beset by spies who are paid by the enemy 
to discover improvements in methods and war 
material. The German army can afford to be 
the least anxious on this subject, for of all of 
the military secrets she possesses, the only 
one whose possession by the enemy can possi- 
bly affect the course of the next war is the 
composition and education of her large corps 
of officers, and this secret no nation has yet 
commenced to grasp. From the standpoint of 
constitutional statesmanship, a large army is 
not an unmixed blessing, but blessing or not, 
Germany demands that her army should be 
the best of its kind so long as she remains a 
military government. 

The German Emperor as leader of his army 
appoints every officer in it, and exercises com- 
plete control over the sort of man that shall be 
deemed fit to wear his livery. His officers rep- 
resent not merely the aristocracy of social 



HIS ARMY. 75 

life and landed property in the country, but 
also that of education. To enter the army, 
even after passing all legal examinations, the 
sub-lieutenant must be declared "worthy to 
be received amongst them " by a majority of 
the officers of his regiment — a German must 
be elected into a regiment as though into an 
exclusive social club, and this test has much 
to do with the present character of the men 
composing the officers of the Emperor. 

In promotion, seniority alone is not re- 
garded, but merit as well, and the Emperor 
orders promotion either upon the result of ex- 
aminations, as with the artillery and engineers, 
or upon the reports of superior officers. The 
German officer enjoys at home a degree of 
social power incredible to one who has not 
seen it, and everything is done by the Govern- 
ment to enhance his importance in the eyes of 
the people. He is always seen in uniform, 
and this badge of power serves him as a pass- 
port in the streets of the city quite as much as 
in the salons of the fashionable. 

The commandant of a military school looks 



y6 HIS ARMY. 

into the qualifications of a proposed cadet 
from the social as well as mental standpoint, 
and if he is not satisfied with anything in re- 
gard to the candidate's parentage or home 
surroundings he simply rejects him. 

Unlike the West Pointer, the cadet of Ger- 
many pays for his education anywhere from 
twenty dollars to three hundred dollars a year, 
according to circumstances. The only cases 
in which cadets get free instruction are where 
their fathers have fallen in battle, or similar 
strong reasons can be urged. The principal 
military school for cadets is in the suburbs of 
Berlin, at Lichterfelde; it accommodates 880, 
and is a splendid pile of brick buildings. There 
are eight others, which, with Lichterfelde, 
make a total accommodation of about 2,500. 
Pupils are admitted between ten and fifteen years 
of age and given a liberal education. West 
Point, as far as I know, is the only school of 
its kind in the world where the Government 
pays young men to come and get a good edu- 
cation, an arrangement that may be popular 
with the parents of the young men benefited 



HIS ARMY. yj 

thereby, but is not in accordance with sound 
principles of Government. Our lawyers, cler- 
gymen, physicians and professional men gen- 
erally do not ask the Government to pay for 
their education — or, if they do, they deserve 
the contempt of the community in which they 
earn their bread. Why, then, should the pro- 
fessional soldier and sailor form an exception? 
The graduate of West Point steps immediately 
into a salary that enables him to live in com- 
fort and marry — if he can find a wife who can 
be useful as well as ornamental. No other 
profession can promise such sure pay as this, 
or a position so secure for a lifetime. 

If it is urged that young men will not enter 
our army unless a premium of this nature is 
offered, I must think such a thought insulting 
to the intelligence and patriotism of the aver- 
age American boy. The English lad pays 
dearly for the privilege of entering Woolwich. 
Saint Cyr is not free to Frenchmen, nor does 
even the German emperor find difficulty in re- 
cruiting his vast corps of officers in the present 
way. And we are to be told that Americans 



yS HIS ARMY. 

alone lack the patriotism and energy that 
drives a man to the profession of arms ? 

If anything makes the army distasteful to 
our best officers, it is the introduction of poli- 
tics there. The feeling that merit goes for 
less than influence at Washington, and that 
no room is made for the display of zeal and 
ability — except by resigning. A very slight 
acquaintance with our army will furnish abun- 
dant illustrations of this state of things. 

The so-called cadet schools of Germany are 
not the only avenues to the army. They are 
only one of many, and intended primarily to 
educate children with an early taste for mili- 
tary life. In fact, much dissatisfaction is heard 
in Parliament in regard to them, on the ground 
that the minds of children are too early di- 
vorced from peaceful pursuits, and taught that 
war is the principal object of the State. 

The real military studies commence with 
the so-called war schools, corresponding to 
West Point more closely than the cadet 
schools. To these schools admission is gained 
only after proper examination, and when they 



HIS ARMY. 79 

leave they must pass examinations before they 
can be commissioned as officers. There are 
nine of these institutions in Germany, averaging 
about one hundred candidates for shoulder 
straps in each. During his course at the war 
school, the German sub-officer messes with 
the older officers of the regiment he hopes to 
join, and here he makes the acquaintance of 
his future comrades. If these, however, do 
not like him, for any reasons, he is given the 
hint, and like a man of sense tries his chances 
somewhere else. This rarely happens, for it 
is always easy to find out beforehand if one's 
presence in the regiment is likely to be 
agreeable to the officers of it, and act accord- 
ingly. 

In the engineer and artillery branches the 
course of study is more severe than in others. 
Cadets must first serve one year and nine 
months with their regiments as supernumerary 
second lieutenants, after which they join the 
artillery and engineer school at Berlin, where 
artillerists are put through a nine and one-half 
months' course; engineers twenty and one- 



80 HIS ARMY. 

half months, before they can get a full rank in 
the army. Of course, they have already passed 
through the war-school course. 

The West Pointer, fresh from the parade 
ground and section room, is ordered to the 
Mexican frontier or the far northwest, and 
immediately put at the head of troops, each 
man under him knowing vastly more of frontier 
campaigning than is ever taught at West Point. 
It would spare our young officers many a mor- 
tification, and our brave soldiers many a hard 
time, if we copied a little of Teutonic common 
sense in the matter, and attached them as 
supernumeraries to an active command, so 
that they might learn something of cam- 
paigning before actually getting a full com- 
mission. 

The ten months' course of the war school at 
Berlin comprises tactics, artillery, including 
the manufacture of ordnance, carriages and 
ammunition; the theory of artillery and mus- 
ketry; small arms; field and permanent forti- 
fication and attack and defence of fortified 
positions; military topography; army organ- 



HIS ARMY. 8l 

ization and administration, and military cor- 
respondence. 

The practical course comprises tactical ex- 
ercise on broken ground — a rare thing at West 
Point — visits to the artillery ranges, to the 
technical establishments, to the engineer drill 
grounds and to fortresses; exercises in mak- 
ing up infantry ammunition; gun drills, riding, 
gymnastics, and musketry. 

Higher still than the war school is the 
Krieg's Akademie (war academy), where offi- 
cers take advanced courses for special appoint- 
ments on the staff, as some of ours do at Wil- 
lett's Point and Fortress Monroe, and corres- 
ponding somewhat to the English staff college. 
German officers usually serve six years before 
attempting this course, although three years is 
enough to entitle them to the right of present- 
ing themselves for examination. This course 
is so important, and fits for such a variety of 
delicate military missions, that every care is 
taken to guard against any one's passing who 
is not in all respects suitable. 

First of all, therefore, the regimental com- 



82 HIS ARMY. 

mander must back the application, and state 
whether, in his opinion, the candidate has: 

1. A thorough practical knowledge of his duties. 

2. Inclination and aptitude for study. 

3. Good health. 

4. Good moral character. 

5. Private means. 

The paternal character of German military 
government is apparent here, as elsewhere, in 
direct contrast to our own. 

Three years is the usual course here, and in- 
cludes: 

1. Reconnoissances near Berlin. 

2. Visits to gun foundries, powder mills, artil- 

lery workshops, the fortifications of Span- 
dau, the fortress model-room at Berlin, 
and the experimental ranges. 

3. Practical surveying in the country. 

4. A staff journey of twenty-one days, in the 

course of which practical problems likely 
to occur in war are solved. 

5. In recess, between the first and second 

years, infantry officers are attached to cav- 
alry regiments; cavalry, artillery, and en- 



HIS ARMY. 83 

gineer officers to infantry regiments; cav- 
alry officers to field artillery; artillery and 
engineer officers to cavalry regiments, for 
the purpose of familiarizing them with 
other branches than their own. 
On leaving this school, forty of the best are 
called to the great general staff, where they 
are put on trial for two or three years, until 
finally selected for the general staff — which in 
Prussia includes fifty-four officers, Bavaria hav- 
ing seven in hers. 

Other special training schools there are for 
medical officers and veterinary surgeons; for 
cavalry; the military gymnastic normal school 
at Berlin; the musketry school at Spandau; 
the gunnery school at Berlin. The non-com- 
missioned officers have a special school at 
Potsdam, where pupils are sent from all over 
Germany to be taught uniformity of drill and 
instruction. 

The monthly pay in the German Army is not 
such as to raise a suspicion that officers enter 
the service in the hope of high pecuniary re- 
ward. 



84 HIS ARMY. 

A Field Marshal receives each month . $245 
The Commander of a Brigade or Reg- 
iment 160 

A Captain between . . $44 and . . 74 

A First Lieutenant almost 22 

And a Second Lieutenant 18 

There is little in this tabulation to attract the 
cupidity of a leading mechanic amongst us, and 
two grades at least would discourage the ambi- 
tion of most day laborers. Our own fledgling 
lieutenants start off with at least $100 a month, 
and must wonder how even the most frugal of 
Germans can subsist on his scant pay. 

The answer is easy — they dorit, and as corol- 
lary to this, it is obviously important that every 
would-be officer should give his chief satisfac- 
tory proofs that he has something to live on 
besides his pay — and that this something is a 
sound investment as well. No officer can 
marry without permission, and permission is 
not granted to a subaltern unless he can show 
that his proposed wife has a private income equal 
to $625 a year; while a second-class captain's 
wife must have about $375 a year. Married offi- 



HIS ARMY. 85 

cers moreover must subscribe to the widow's 
fund at such a rate as to secure to their widows 
from $150 to $375 a year, according to their 
rank. These paternal restraints may seem in- 
tolerable to our officers, as they would be 
equally to those of England; yet many a 
scandal at our army posts would have been 
avoided had the newly graduated bridegroom 
been forced to submit to the wisdom of his 
elders instead of enjoying the dangerous liberty 
of rushing into matrimony without regard for 
his own future or the feelings of the community 
in which his lot is intimately cast. 

The German officer has a servant allowed 
him, which is not the case with us; he also 
travels at lower rates than the ordinary public, 
and can usually purchase theatre tickets at a 
large discount. He is not amenable to the 
ordinary civil tribunals of the country, but is 
tried by a special military court. 

Throughout the German Army are so-called 
Courts of Honor, which determine disputes be- 
tween officers, and take cognizance particularly 
of such matters, which, while not strictly 



86 HIS ARMY. 

against a law, are unworthy a gentleman. 
Whether or not an officer may receive a chal- 
lenge is determined by this tribunal, and its 
judgment may compel an officer to leave the 
army if he has been guilty of some breach of 
morality, or in any way acted dishonorably. 



GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 

I* T was in a third-class railway carriage tra- 
-■- veiling through Bessarabia, from the 
mouth of the Danube to Odessa, that I made 

the acquaintance of (I had almost betrayed 

him !). He was an old man, his features much 
resembling those of the late Moltke, and with 
him was a pretty little girl of about twelve. 
They were obviously German, prosperous and 
intelligent, and I seized the first opportunity 
that offered itself of learning something more 
about him. 

The passengers in my car were about one- 
third Jew, one-third Russian, and one-third 
German, and as the journey lasted twenty-four 
hours, and the train stopped at each station, 
there were abundant opportunities for asking 
questions, without exciting the suspicion of 
any malicious officials. 

The old man's tale is a short one — a pa- 
thetic one: it is told so often in Russia that 

87 



88 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 

people have become tired of hearing it, and 
those who tell it almost wonder that it can stir 
the indignation of an outsider. To me it was 
not new; but the circumstances under which I 
heard it are so fresh in my mind — I have veri- 
fied it so completely since — and the tears in 
the old man's voice were so real, that I repro- 
duce some of it here as an illustration of what 
Russia is doing to make her name hated by 
free people. 

My friend boarded the train not far from 
Leipzig, a name I did not expect to find over 
a Russian railway station fifty miles only from 
the Black Sea. He was taking his grand- 
daughter to visit her relatives not far off; and 
as we conversed in German, it seemed hard to 
realize that we were in Bessarabia, for he was 
speaking his mother tongue and retained the 
dress of a North German peasant. 

After some talk of a general nature, and ap- 
parently convincing him that I meant no 
harm, he answered the questions I put him 
touching his relations with the Russian Gov- 
ernment. 



GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 89 

" You see," said he, in the deliberate tone of 
a man reconciled to misfortune, " Russia is not 
quite fair with us Germans. There are many 
of us whose ancestors came here in the last 
century, like myself, Protestants and Germans. 
We were induced to make this long journey 
and break our dearest ties, by the promise, not 
only of land to cultivate, but liberty to develop 
according to our inherited traditions. We 
have become good Russians; we do our mili- 
tary service like the rest; we have improved 
the land and pay our proportionate tax cheer- 
fully — but still we are made to feel that we are 
aliens." 

Of course, I affected surprise at this. The 
old man then went on in a patient, deliberate 
manner, that was more impressive and touch- 
ing than I can describe : 

" The Russian officials have many, many 
ways in which they can show their dislike to 
us; and it has of recent years become so in- 
tense as to appear deliberate persecution. Our 
taxes are enormously increased, and we are 
told that they are going to make us pay for 



90 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 

the land that was given to our ancestors. 
They treat us as they treat the Jews — as peo- 
ple not entitled to legal protection. They 
want no one who is not of the Russian Greek 
Church. They cannot feel for us as they do 
for their own people. 

" The officials control us completely, and if 
they act unfairly we dare not complain, for to 
whom can we complain ? We are now forced 
to learn Russian in our schools, and much 
difficulty is made when we try to engage a 
German teacher for our own children. If we 
want a teacher from Germany the officials are 
very strict in seeing that he knows Russian, 
but when they appoint a Russian they take 
little pains to see that he knows any German. 

" Whenever a difficulty is raised it is always 
against a German; they will not allow a Ger- 
man here to run a machine. The brother of a 
neighbor of mine had a steam flour-mill; he is 
now no longer allowed to run it, and it lies 
idle and rusting. Yet that man was born in 
Russia, but because he had lived a few years 
in Roumania, and has thus forfeited his Rus- 



GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 91 

sian rights, he is now cut off from working a 
mill that was of great service to our commun- 
ity. Our tailors must first join the Russian 
Church before the police will allow them to 
use a sewing machine. The officials seem de- 
termined that no one but an orthodox Russian 
shall earn a living here; and this we think is 
unfair to us after having lived here so long 
relying on the Czar's promises." 

" But why don't you emigrate ? " said I. 

" Because I am too old," answered he lacon- 
ically and bitterly. " My life has been spent 
here, my ancestors have improved our estates 
here, all my friends are here, and many of my 
kinspeople. Who would buy my farm ? No 
German is allowed to buy land, and if I sold at 
all it would be at a great sacrifice. 

" Besides, the officials put great difficulties 
in the way of those of us who seek to leave 
the country. For instance, we often wish to 
visit Roumania either on business or to pay 
visits to our German friends; but such little 
excursions cost us much money beside our 
railway fare — we have to pay from twenty to 



92 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 

fifty roubles for a passport ($10 to $25). This 
is not the cost of the fee, but we have to go 
ourselves to the seat of Government, or send 
someone, and it takes at least ten days before 
we can get the permit." 

" But why don't you write ? " 

" Oh, but I should not get an answer for six 
months ; my letter would be pigeon-holed, 
and left there until I went in person and bribed 
someone to help me about it. Even for this 
little excursion I am making with my grand- 
daughter it is not always easy to get a pass." 

" But why do the Russians hate the Ger- 
mans ? " I asked. 

" I don't know," said he pathetically. "We 
do them no harm. Perhaps it is because we 
have prospered more than our Russian neigh- 
bors, and made them jealous. A German vil- 
lage is clean and tidy; a Russian one is filthy 
and poor. When a German peasant enters 
the army he looks so well dressed in compari- 
son with the Russians who come with him, 
that he is commonly taken to be the son of a 
landed proprietor." 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

T F I am to be exiled," said a Polish friend 

-*- to me, " I would rather be sent to the 

Rhine than to Siberia." Nor did it take many 

hours of Warsaw to explain what this meant. 

My passage through the country was purely 
for pleasure; being on my way home after a 
canoe voyage down the Danube. A brilliant 
Russian lady who has written many books pro- 
claiming the goodness of the Czar and the ex- 
cellence of his government, has frequently said 
to me that if I would only go and see for my- 
self I would be satisfied that Russia was much 
misunderstood. And here was another induce- 
ment — I had almost said aa invitation. 

Passing over the fact that I was treated like 
a criminal at the frontier of Bessarabia, I was 
surprised to find on purchasing a copy of the 
Paris Temps, at the station, that all the news 
about Russia had been blacked out by the Cen- 

93 



94 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

sor. In view of the very cordial relations be- 
tween the two countries this seemed strange. 

On reaching the hotel at Warsaw I was of 
course required to give up my passport, and 
had hardly got my head well dipped into the 
wash-bowl when in came a sleek, soft, shiny, 
black-coated, deacon-looking individual who 
proceeded to offer me his services and indirect- 
ly to pump me as to where I had been and 
whither I was bound. He was one of the many 
talebearers and spies who hope for a Govern- 
ment post when they shall have proved their 
capacity for dirty work. This Mr. Mulberry- 
Stiggins was promptly told that he would be 
kicked all the way down stairs if he did not 
leave; and as soon as I had finished my work 
in hand I strolled out and had the good for- 
tune to meet an old friend who took me to see 
"the sights." 

We drifted to the Citadel, and I stopped op- 
posite a long, yellow brick building with two 
rows of windows so curiously ranged as to 
cause me to stop and call my friend's attention 
to them. The upper row was immediately un- 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 95 

der the eaves, and the lower row higher than 
usual from the ground. I had barely pointed 
to this building when the sentinel made a sign 
with his disengaged arm that I was to pass on. 
But the subject interested me, and I doubted 
that he would leave his beat to come after me; 
so I continued my study, and was busy count- 
ing the windows and calculating the amount 
of space represented within the walls when out 
sprang, not the sentinel, but another man in 
uniform, who appeared in earnest. By this 
time I had seen quite enough, turned my back, 
and started in the opposite direction. 

My venerable friend, a Polish manufacturer 
of great social consideration, large fortune, and 
excellent political judgment, now told me that 
I had stopped in front of the prison for polit- 
ical suspects; that the prison was as full as it 
would hold; that there were three hundred 
there at present all waiting to know whether 
they were to be flogged, sent to Siberia, or 
only kept a few weeks or months. 

" But surely," I ventured to remark, " you 
don't mean to say that you allow your political 



g6 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

prisoners to be tortured before they are even 
condemned." My friend smiled at my childish 
naivete, and said : 

"I was once suspected of being lukewarm in 
my loyalty to Russia, and was locked up there 
for six weeks, or until they could find the time 
to investigate my case and find out that there 
was no charge against me. My cell was in the 
upper row you looked at, and you were struck 
by the appearance of the building because the 
windows are about ten feet from the floor, so 
high, therefore, as to make it impossible for the 
prisoner to look out. I was accused for noth- 
ing in particular — merely arrested because 
someone might have reported me as not Rus- 
sian enough; perhaps I might have been seen 
reading a liberal book; perhaps I might have 
been overheard praising a Polish friend — there 
are a dozen frivolous grounds that may have 
occasioned my arrest, but I shall never know 
why I was made prisoner. 

" Below me was a room from which every 
day emanated screams, groans, cursing, and 
such sobbing as would melt the heart of a 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 97 

criminal. In that room they were ' examining,' 
as they call it, such of their victims as they 
thought might be induced to implicate others. 
Here they are flogged with pickled sticks un- 
til human nature can stand it no longer, and 
they either lose consciousness or give in. The 
flogging is repeated at short intervals with par- 
ticular reference to the creation of pain; and 
the police rarely fail to force some kind of tes- 
timony — for human reason weakens after a cer- 
tain amount of physical torture, and a wretched 
prisoner who has been flogged into semi-id- 
iocy will say almost anything that promises 
to end his pains. It was only a few years 
ago that a worthy friend of mine, who had 
entered this jail in the possession of all his 
faculties, returned to his home deaf as a post 
and much impaired intellectually." 

As I passed a troop of Cossack horsemen my 
attention was arrested by the extraordinary 
type they represented; not the Russian by any 
means, nothing that remotely suggested the 
environs of the Black or Caspian Sea, These 
men were the counterpart of the camel-driv- 



98 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

ers I had passed along the great wall of 
China; they were Mongols, Tartars — men of 
an Esquimaux appearance, with small Chinese 
eyes set very close together, with high cheek 
bones, broad, flattened-out faces, little flat 
noses, big ugly mouths, a mixture of China- 
man, Laplander, and Apache Indian. " Are 
there many of these savages in this neighbor- 
hood ? " I asked. 

" Oh, yes. You cannot take a walk on this 
meridian between Prussia and Austria without 
stumbling upon a Cossack post every few miles. 
Every Pole who is called to arms is transported 
to the extreme corners of the Empire — to Si- 
beria, to the Caucasus, anywhere to be out of 
the way of his own people. Their places are 
taken by the most useful soldiers a Russian 
could wish for, troops levied from the most re- 
mote and least civilized sections of the Em- 
pire." 

From the Citadel to the town is only a few 
hundred yards, a space that is kept clear in 
the event of its being found de-sirable to bom- 
bard the city; for, oddly enough, the Russians 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 99 

have their guns here facing, not in the direc- 
tion from which an enemy might be expected, 
but full at the spires of one of the most impor- 
tant towns of their vast Empire. 

My venerable friend told me many things, 
and others told me many things more. I. did 
not look for information amongst the constitu- 
tionally dissatisfied and revolutionary elements 
of society, but exclusively among men of large 
landed interest, of personal weight in the com- 
munity, cautious men of affairs — yet men so 
earnest in their belief that they were willing to 
stake all they had for the sake of proclaiming 
the misery under which they are forced to live 
from day to day. The names of these men I 
cannot give; I dare not even have correspond- 
ence with them excepting through indirect 
channels, but on the first sign of war these 
men will march with hundreds of other patriots, 
and they will be followed by every Polish 
peasant who is still able to swing an axe or 
pitchfork. The causes that have brought about 
this result have been partially indicated. In 
general they spring from the systematic perse- 



IOO A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

cution of everybody and everything that is not 
orthodox Russian. The son of one of my 
friends was dismissed from a high school be- 
cause he had been overheard speaking his own 
language, Polish, during play hours. This was 
tantamount to an order of banishment, for no 
other Warsaw school would admit him, and 
the father had therefore to send him abroad 
for an education. 

Another friend is director in a vast trans- 
portation enterprise; he cannot appoint a single 
day-laborer in his own works without the 
permission of Government. 

No shop in Warsaw can do without at least 
one Russian clerk on penalty of police prose- 
cution; therefore, though the Russians are no- 
toriously inferior, the Pole must have one of 
his hated taskmasters about him all day. A 
friend of mine was grossly insulted on the 
platform of a railway station because he was 
saying " good-bye " to a German friend in the 
German language; nor did this Polish gentle- 
man dare to resent such behavior. He no 
doubt had in mind a notorious case in Poland 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. IOI 

where a Polish nobleman boxed the ears of a 
Russian official who had dared to insult his 
wife, and in consequence was threatened not 
only with Siberia, but the confiscation of his 
estates; and he only managed to escape both 
by paying an outrageously large bribe, the 
money for which was raised spontaneously by 
his many friends and a host of loyal peas- 
ants. 

My note-book is full of sickening details 
such as these which I am forced to hint at 
rather than relate for fear of unfortunate con- 
sequences to innocent men. 

The devilish refinement of Russian persecu- 
tion lies in the fact that it is not carried out 
according to any law, or even edict of the 
Czar, but that it is produced by the license 
permitted the officials who govern a district. 
At any moment a Russian police force may 
enter a man's premises, tell him that he has 
been guilty of a wrong, that he must go before 
the tribunal unless he chooses to pay a fine or 
bribe. The bribe is, of course, paid; for even 
though the man knows himself to be thorough- 



102 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

ly innocent, he has no mind to sit six weeks 
in jail while his case is undergoing scru- 
tiny. . x 

If a man wishes to make an improvement to 
his house, to erect a new mill, to do any of the 
hundred things that represent progress, he is 
sure to have obstacles placed in his way for 
the purpose of producing bribes — and it is 
hardly worth pointing out that such a course of 
administrative tyranny destroys a people com- 
mercially, and saps every incentive to honest 
dealing and municipal energy. 

There was a time, and since 1863, that Poles 
were divided in their allegiance, and many 
hoped that incorporation with so vast a coun- 
try as Russia would bring them material pros- 
perity in exchange for political bankruptcy. 
Warsaw was excellently situated to serve as a 
great entrepot between the east and the west, 
and her merchants were in a position to take 
advantage of this happy position. But the 
Government quickly put an end to this delu- 
sion by every police interference that could 
discourage Polish trade. Of course, what was 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. IO3 

done as an imperial measure in closing the 
Polish frontier against German and Austrian 
goods was bad enough, but still might be re- 
garded as a measure affecting all Russia. But 
to-day it costs twice as much to send a bale of 
goods from Poland to Russia as from Russia to 
Poland. The railway tariff has been arranged 
with a vievv to forcing Poland to consume only 
Russian goods, and to make it impossible for 
Poles to purchase such goods by sending in 
exchange their own products. 

In this case they are not merely dragged 
down to the level of Russians, but are treated 
even worse. 

The Polish peasantry who belong to the 
Greek Church, but not as orthodox members, 
are harried in every way ; and the more they 
are persecuted the more tenaciously do they 
cultivate hatred for the Czar. The Polish 
landowners and aristocracy have to submit to 
innumerable vexatious enactments ; they can- 
not sell a piece of land to one of their own peo- 
ple ; they can sell only to a Russian. If a 
landowner dies, his property is sold for the 



104 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

benefit of his children, but as no Pole can buy 
land in Poland, it follows that no one of this 
man's children can buy back his father's land. 
If he wishes to employ anyone to manage a 
mill or machine for him, he will find the great- 
est difficulty in doing so unless he bribes so 
many officials as to make his enterprise a 
financial failure. 

No educated Pole can get employment in 
his own country in any career directly or indi- 
rectly depending on Government favor ; that 
means, that as an engineer, a physician, a law- 
yer, and more particularly as a candidate for 
the army or the civil service, he is a hopeless 
man, unless he is prepared to adopt the Greek 
religion and forswear his nationality. Polish 
officers are told frankly by their superiors that 
it is useless for them to hope for advancement 
while they remain in Poland. If they want to 
get on in their career they must work their 
way out to the Eastern frontiers — Caucasus, 
Siberia, anywhere so long as it is far from their 
home. 

In view of the menacing movement which 



A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 105 

Russia is making against Western Europe, the 
attitude of Poland becomes interesting, not 
merely through our sympathy with outraged 
humanity, but as a factor in a possible war. It 
is worth remembering that the Poland of 1891 
is a vastly more mature and rational creature 
than the Poland of 1863. The country has 
been tried in a hard school ; it has learned to 
give up political ambitions ; it has become a 
unit through blood and iron, and stands now 
before the world as a land where seven mil- 
lions of Christians pray daily for deliverance 
from the heel of a degrading tyrant. They have 
hated the Germany of Bismarck because that 
Government represented an intolerance little 
short of the Czar's. They now pray for the 
approach of a German army. They no longer 
dream of a dynasty, a frontier, a national fu- 
ture — they have learned to find happiness in 
the idea of bare existence — in the mere cessa- 
tion of persecution. " Let Europe do with us 
what it will," is their cry ; " let it treat us se- 
verely — harshly. We can still expect to live 
and develop under its rule. But what can we 



106 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

expect from a continuance of Russian adminis- 
tration ? Only moral degradation and beg- 
gary." 



THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 

\li 7 HEN the curtain had fallen after the 
" * last act of the play, a Polish one, pro- 
duced for the first time in Warsaw, my friend 
asked me what I thought of it. Now the play 
was of a national character, as those of Wilden- 
bruch are to Germany, or Boucicault's SJiangJi- 
raun to an Irishman. I told him that I was 
struck by the great enthusiasm shown in ap- 
plauding a peasants' dance, and the compara- 
tive indifference towards what one might con- 
sider the more legitimate features of the play. 
Had I been a spectator of it in any other place, 
it would have been most puzzling to see a 
large, intelligent audience going almost frantic 
in their eagerness to applaud a very simple and 
indifferently executed national dance. My 
friend accepted this reflection of mine with a 

sad, confirmatory nod, and said, "We are 

107 



I08 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 

lucky to have as much as this passed by the 
censor." 

In a few moments after this, I was so for- 
tunate as to make the author's acquaintance. 

I asked him if the censor had interfered with 
him in the production of this play ? 

He answered me: ''They have cut out just 
about half of what I wrote, and forced me to 
substitute what they consider less offensive 
patriotism." To my expression of astonish- 
ment that the applause of the dance should 
have been so conspicuous, he said: " Yes. I 
am almost at a loss to understand why they 
allowed even that simple national dance; for 
you see that anything that suggests nationality 
to this people throws them into a transport of 
patriotism. The very sight" of the national 
dress, moving about joyously on the stage, 
suggests to every Pole a longing for independ- 
ence, and hatred of Russia." Perhaps I should 
say, in parenthesis, that my informant was one 
of the most popular writers of his country. 

To my further inquiries as to his relations 
with the censor, he said: " The matter is ex- 



THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. IO9 

tremely simple — limited, in fact, to thirty 
words, the use of which must be avoided. 
For example, 'nation' must not be used; it 
suggests Poland. ' King ' is objectionable, as 
well as ' kingdom,' for both are in contrast to 
the Czar and his empire. I must never use 
the word ' Emperor '; it might imply that there 
was an Austrian or a German Emperor; 
whereas in Russia there is but the Czar. ' In- 
dependence ' is of course insulting to the Gov- 
ernment, so are ' freedom,' ' liberty,' ' constitu- 
tion,' ' Parliament,' which are obviously in the 
nature of Icsc-majcstc. We must not only 
avoid the use of these bare words in any 
sense, but we must most carefully avoid any 
suggestion that might imply the existence of 
such a thing as Poland. Polish history does 
not exist in Russia; for how can there be a 
history for a tract of land figuring only as a 
province of the Czar ? The name of my coun- 
try cannot be used, for officially we are not 
Poles, but are only known to our masters as 
inhabitants of the military department of the 
Vistula." 



IIO THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 

Returning home that evening, I was too 
much depressed by the words that I had heard 
to be able to think of anything else, and fear- 
ing lest those with whom I had talked might 
have been guilty of exaggeration, I compared 
notes with a gentleman of considerable impor- 
tance in the country, not only as director in a 
great transportation company, but also as a 
landed proprietor and lawyer. He fully con- 
firmed what I have quoted, and entertained me 
by repeating instances of censorial interferences 
whch occurred to him at the moment, and 
which I made note of immediately afterwards. 
To use his language, " Nothing can exceed the 
stupidity of the average censor, except the 
brutality with which he docs his work. A 
newspaper received a telegram referring to the 
Czar, in which his title was abbreviated in the 
usual manner, as, for instance, ' H. R. H.' for 
4 His Royal Highness.' Through a mistake of 
the compositor or proof-reader, the Czar's name 
appeared in print with only the abbreviated 
title, for which offence the editor-in-chief was 
curtly summoned to appear before a police offi- 



THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. Ill 

cial, to whom he, of course, explained the mis- 
take, and apologized most completely. The 
surly blackguard dismissed the editor with 
these words, ' If another time you fail to find 
the space, I will find it for you — in Siberia.' " 
My friend seemed to think that the insult lay, 
not so much in what was said, as in the behavior 
of the official, who acted as towards a con- 
temptible slave, while in fact he was address- 
ing a person vastly superior to him in birth, 
breeding, and attainments. 

Another editor sought to publish an article 
by an art critic, in which it was necessary to 
describe the decoration of a room as "style 
Empire" This word "Empire," even in this 
connection, was considered treasonable; but 
the censor, being in a particularly amiable 
mood, refrained from interdicting the whole 
article. He crossed out the word "Empire" 
and substituted " Russe" in its place, explain- 
ing afterwards, on meeting the editor casually, 
that, as there was but one Empire, and its 
name was Russia, why use an expression 
which might be misunderstood by the vulgar ? 



112 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 

With such a man no argument was possible; 
and there was no alternative but to submit. 
"Another instance," continued my friend. 
" Last winter, some snow fell off a roof and 
killed a maid-servant who was passing below. 
An illustrated paper had a sketch of the scene, 
as the event appeared to excite interest. This 
sketch was deemed offensive by the censors; 
not because it was badly drawn, but because it 
so happened that the police are responsible for 
the condition of the roofs, and, therefore, that 
the report of such a case was indirectly a crit- 
icism on the efficiency of the Czar's Govern- 
ment. Recently, at the very theatre you at- 
tended this evening, a Polish singer rendered 
a song in French that gave so much pleasure 
as to produce an encore. He then sang a little 
Polish ballad, one, by the way, which had 
been passed by the censor; but, because he 
had not obtained special permission to sing 
this particular ballad as an encore on this par- 
ticular occasion, he was fined fifteen hundred 
roubles (about $750). Here is another pain- 
ful illustration of how the so-called Gov- 



THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 1 1 3 

ernment of Russia hampers private enterprise. 
One of the largest and most respectable busi- 
ness houses in Warsaw undertook, last year, 
to open a branch of their work elsewhere in 
Poland. The police forbade it, giving no rea- 
son except that in 1863 they had been entered 
on the Government lists as suspected of liberal 
ideas. 

"The Government here — perhaps I should 
say, the police of General Gourko — take great 
pains that no favorable mention is ever made 
of anything done or said by one who is not 
orthodox Russian. The reason for this is, 
perhaps, not obvious; but we know that Rus- 
sians do not like to have it appear as though 
the Polish nation was able to produce men of 
intelligent capacity. One of our most brilliant 
writers recently made a scientific voyage to a 
distant country, and on his return was inter- 
viewed as to his experiences. Not a line of it 
was allowed to appear, the reason given being 
that it was calculated to advertise him. Sub- 
sequently the same author wrote a book of 
travels, of which every line which related per- 



114 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 

sonal experience was erased by the censor, 
and only that portion permitted to remain 
which dealt in geographical platitudes. One 
paper here recently sought to publish an ex- 
tract from an English review. It was from an 
article discussing the German Emperor. Not 
only was this completely suppressed by the 
censor, but the editor-in-chief was ordered to 
appear before him, there to be told with cyn- 
ical frankness that loyal Russians did not wish 
to hear praise of a German Emperor; if he 
wished to praise the Emperor, he had better 
get his information from St. Petersburg." 

A Pole complains not so much of the hard- 
ship of laws, as of the absence of law; not so 
much against a censorship, as against the 
brutal caprice of the censor. -Is it strange that 
they should turn their eyes towards Berlin, 
and pray, not for freedom, but for any govern- 
ment that lifts them above barbarism ? 



THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT ON THE 
RUSSIAN BORDER. 

r I ^HE visit I paid to the farm of my Rou- 
•*- manian friend interested me chiefly be- 
cause his estate lay close to the Russian bor- 
der; and as newspapers told me that famine 
was staring the population of that country in 
the face, it was naturally of interest to note 
how far the same conditions prevailed in a 
country with about the same soil and climate. 
My host, moreover, was a man of wide travel 
and broad sympathies, conversant with his 
country's needs, and ready to enlighten my 
ignorance. To assure me, however, against 
possible error, we went together to call upon 
his farmer, and secure his company for a drive 
over the estate. The farmer was intelligent, 
well dressed, and living in a house furnished as 
comfortably as that of any farmer in England 
or America. While the horses were being - 

o 
"5 



Il6 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 

harnessed I asked the prices of various things, 
and noted the following: 

His yoke of ordinary mountain oxen cost $30. 

His best yoke of oxen, of the plains, cost $60. 

His four-wheeled ox wagon, with pole like 
ours, but no iron tires, cost $25. 

His best farm wagon, made all by hand in 
his village, and one that struck me as very 
strong, light, and useful, and which I was told 
carried 2,650 kilogrammes (5,830 pounds), cost 
him $60. 

His pair of ordinary but useful horses cost 
$100. 

His best pair of very strong, swift, and hand- 
some Bessarabian horses cost him $200 — a pair 
that would have excited envy in any stable. 

He pays his men two francs a day (40 cents) 
during harvest, and half that amount in the 
winter-time, in addition to their food and 
lodging. 

Such items as I jotted down in this farm- 
yard refer only to what an individual farmer 
did on a Roumanian farm in the autumn of 
1 891, and can only serve as the basis for gen- 



THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. I 1 7 

eralization in so far as his experience is that of 
other farmers of the country — which I am as- 
sured is the case. The prices I mention are 
low, but the cost of living is in correspond- 
ence; and my host can give an able-bodied 
man all he can consume, including a reason- 
able amount of wine, for sixty centimes, or 
less than 12 cents a day. The laborers and 
peasants that I met in the fields and about the 
roadways looked well fed, hardy, and indus- 
trious; their cottages clean and commodious. 

"But what of the Russians?" I asked. 
" Are they not starving over there, while you 
are rolling in plenty?" 

" That," answered my host, " is ' Protection ! ' 
We are glad to pay for their horses and oxen, 
and no doubt some of them would like to have 
our corn; but, as matters stand, you could not 
induce one of my peasants to cross the Rus- 
sian frontier." 

On my journey down the Danube I coasted 
the whole southern frontier of Roumania, and 
was struck by the large quantity of English 
steamers taking in cargoes of grain — not to 



Il8 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 

speak of craft of other countries. In view of 
the alleged famine in Russia it was reasonable 
to assume that most of this food-stuff was des- 
tined to relieve the distress within the Czar's 
dominions, but such was not the case I discov- 
ered. It was intended mainly for western Eu- 
rope. My host subsequently prepared for me 
a statistical table of Roumanian trade for the 
five years preceding 1889, the average of which 
showed the strange fact — 

1st. That nine-tenths of it was with western 
Europe — England, Austria, Belgium, Switzer- 
land, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, 
Sweden, and Norway. 

2d. That only one-tenth of it was with the 
East; and 

3d. That in this one-tenth, two-thirds is 
represented by Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and 
Turkey; 

4th. That only one-third of this tenth repre- 
sents the trade carried on with her nearest 
neighbor — Russia. 

In view of this it seems strange that Eng- 
land, America and the rest of the world should 



THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 1 19 

be called upon to assist a people who, 
while reported as starving, refuse to satisfy 
their needs by trading with their neighbors 
who are more than willing to satisfy their 
wants. 

We drove many miles by the side of splen- 
did fields of maize, wheat, and oats — all testi- 
fying to the bounty of the Almighty, for not in 
many years has such a splendid harvest been 
known. I have inspected many fields ripe for 
harvest in Manitoba and Minnesota, but never 
saw anything to surpass the grain harvested 
this year along the Russian side of Roumania. 
When we came to where the steam-threshers 
were puffing and shaking the hard red berries 
from the wheat stalks, we found a number of 
Greek grain buyers, who had come here from 
the Danube to bargain for their principals, 
coming directly to the farmer with bags and 
carts, in order to lose no time. The wheat in 
question was finding ready sale, although the 
price had risen since last year in the ratio of 9 
francs to 14 francs the sack. 

The land question in Roumania appears to 



120 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 

have been settled tolerably, for to my ques- 
tions on this subject I received the following 
answers : 

" Up to 1866 the relation of peasants to pro- 
prietors was feudal and unsatisfactory. The 
peasants were bound to give twenty-two days 
of their labor out of every year to the lord of 
the land, who, naturally, selected the days 
that suited him best, and who also took as tri- 
bute one-third of all that the peasant raised 
upon his land. Under this system the owner 
worked his estate for nothing, and was only 
too glad to let his peasants have all the land 
they could cultivate. 

" But that system had this drawback — that 
the peasants did not feel any particular alle- 
giance to the soil of the landlord, and were con- 
stantly shifting from one estate to another, 
much as sailors go from ship to ship, hunting 
for an easy forecastle. 

"The rural law passed in 1866 forced every 
estate to transfer to each peasant upon it eleven 
pogons (about twelve acres) in fee simple; 
thus at one stroke abolishing serfdom in the 



THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 121 

kingdom. In addition, the State made a pres- 
ent of eleven additional pogons to each peas- 
ant who married, making him, not merely a 
free man, but one fairly started in the line of 
prosperity. So far the scheme worked well. 
The estates thus transferred were declared in- 
alienable for at least fifty years, so as to pre- 
vent the former masters buying back the land 
they had been forced to part with. My es- 
tate," continued my host, " brings me in thirty 
thousand francs a year, of which ten per cent., 
or three thousand francs, goes to the Govern- 
ment as tax. The peasant, however, has to 
pay double the tax, or twenty per cent. — not 
only the ten per cent, that I pay, but ten per 
cent, additional as the interest on the money 
which the State devoted in 1866 to buying the 
land from his former master. As a landlord I 
do not object to the burdens which others bear 
on my account; but as a man I feel that the 
peasants have some cause to grumble." 

There is reason to fear that the double 
burden of taxation now resting upon the Rou- 
manian peasant represents a grievance which 



122 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 

the politician of a certain class is never slow 
to utilize for the sake of posing as the people's 
tribune, and that the landlords themselves 
would have been wise in their generation had 
they asked no price for the few acres each was 
made to surrender in 1866. But many as must 
be the faults of any measure so sweeping as 
the Roumanian rural law, it has done the coun- 
try good, and raised the peasants infinitely be- 
yond the level of their fellow-creatures on the 
Russian side of the frontier. They are now 
free men before the law; their property is 
secured to them ; and they are sure that 
though the present generation bears a heavy 
burden, it is leaving a precious heritage to the 
next. From what I learned on this Roumanian 
farm, and from conversation with capable peo- 
ple of that country, I feel justified in conclud- 
ing that the Roumanian peasants may be 
counted upon to resist aggression on the part 
of Russia; not so much from sentimental re- 
gard for the parties to the Triple Alliance, as 
from the conviction that their material pros- 
perity is vastly greater than that of their neigh- 



THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 123 

bors across the Pruth, and they have every- 
thing to lose by becoming tributary to Holy 
Russia. 



A FIRST IMPRESSION ON THE ROU- 
MANIAN FRONTIER. 

\ T 7 HEN it became so dark that I could not 
* * plainly distinguish objects on either 
bank of the Danube, which here was a couple 
of miles wide, I lowered my two sails and pad- 
dled for Roumania. It would have been no 
further to the Bulgarian shore, but sentiment 
guided my canoe to the other side, where I 
had some friends to whom I thought I might 
turn in case of difficulty. 

The Roumanian frontier was guarded here, 
as elsewhere, by a series of square huts placed 
within sight one of the other, each hut contain- 
ing five soldiers, one of whom did sentry while 
the rest seemed generally occupied over a fire 
or washing clothes. Between two of these 
guard-houses I ran my keel ashore, quickly 
hauled my boat high and dry, propped her on 

either side by means of spare hatches, rigged 

124 



A FIRST IMPRESSION. I25 

my tent over the well, took a swim, changed 
into my night rig, put my soup over a spirit 
stove, and commenced to muse over the pleas- 
ures of solitude — but not for long. One of the 
guard had spied me and came to investigate; 
soon came a second, and lastly, one with a 
breech-loading rifle. The rifleman made trou- 
ble in a language I could not understand, and 
I protested as vigorously in four equally un- 
known tongues. It was clear, however, that I 
was regarded as a trespasser, and was to be 
sent off. I therefore commenced by offering 
them some soup, which they devoured after 
the manner of men on half rations; then I 
shared a bottle of local wine, and after that the 
rifleman took a long drink from the supply of 
methylated spirits which did my cooking when 
no drift-wood was at hand. 

All this while they talked to me and I back 
at them — they in their native tongue and I in 
mine — until one of them attempted to examine 
my paddle. I told him not to, but he insisted, 
so I jumped to my feet with a knife in one 
hand, pretending anger, though my real feelings 



126 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 

< 

were quite opposite, and I was at the moment 
wondering how this scrape would end. For- 
tunately, the man dropped the paddle, and the 
others vociferously talked, as though they in- 
tended no harm. At this I pantomimed that I 
was going to bed and waved them in the direc- 
tion of their quarters, saying good-night in 
every language I knew. They left, and I was 
soon sound asleep. 

The banging of a musket-butt against the 
stern of Caribee awaked me. I peered through 
my mosquito curtains and saw a long, hungry- 
looking Roumanian private standing in the 
moonlight with his right index finger on the 
trigger of his piece, and his attitude suggesting 
either the tendency to charge or to aim. He 
stood at a respectful distance, ignorant, per- 
haps, of my armament, and savagely harang- 
ued me as one who had been guilty of a 
grave crime. He pointed up, he pointed down, 
he pointed at the Bulgarians, and aimed in 
that direction; he evidently resented the com- 
forts I was enjoying on Roumanian soil, and 
threatened to shoot if I did not move on. But 



A FIRST IMPRESSION. \2J 

I knew that innocent fishermen were some- 
times shot at in boats — to say nothing of 
smugglers — and that frontier guards aim 
very carelessly in the moonlight, particularly 
where there is no one to call them to ac- 
count. So I concluded not to move, and be- 
gan, therefore, to abuse my ferocious frontiers- 
man in robust English, accusing him of base 
extraction and flagrant sins, watching care- 
fully the while his face and hands. I shook in 
the air my passport, maps, and other loose 
papers, and interlarded my opprobrious words 
with every military title that could appeal to 
the senses of a semi-civilized private. The 
moon told me that I was not to be shot — on 
the spot, at least; but she also told me that my 
trigger-touching terror insisted that I should 
uncoil myself from out of my snug canoe and 
go with him to some remote guard-house for 
examination. This I strenuously objected to; 
but, in my most violent paroxysm, fumbled in 
my stern locker for a bottle of excellent liquor 
known as Schlivovitz, and at the climax of my 
discourse drew the cork and reached the bottle 



128 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 

towards him. Without undue self-adulation, I 
may here remark that never, on the stump or 
in festive gatherings, have I so completely 
realized the satisfaction of oratorical success as 
on this chilly moonlight night on the banks of 
the tortuous swamp-spreading Danube, as I 
listened to the contents of my best bottle dis- 
appearing down the thirsty recesses of that 
ruffian. 

He, too, disappeared, grinning horribly, 
swinging his musket — a drunken pendulum, 
zigzagging along a deceptive path of moon- 
light. 

The sun awoke me next. I did not wait for 
breakfast, but stowed my gear, pulled my boat 
to the water, jumped aboard, hoisted sail, and 
munched a crust of bread with a piece of choc- 
olate while I made notes and wondered how 
much salary a man ought to get who did this 
sort of thing for a living. 

My experience is worth telling only because 
it illustrates the semi-civilized condition of 
frontier life, not merely in Roumania, but also 
in Servia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and, above all, 



A FIRST IMPRESSION. 129 

Russia — wherever the Danube forms the bound- 
ary. The trade of this great river is absurdly 
small compared with the wealth along its 
banks, and can never be much better so long 
as its trade is regulated by Governments whose 
maxims are similar to those of the robber 
knights who built castles in the middle ages 
for the purpose of levying tribute from passing 
ships. To-day no one can pass from one side 
of the Lower Danube to the other without vex- 
atious delay, expense, annoyance — often dan- 
ger of life or liberty. Each country of this 
neighborhood seeks to discourage the trade of 
every other, and the great steamship company 
that runs its boats the whole length of the 
stream has difficulty in paying its way, owing 
to the multiplicity of fines, bribes, and taxes it 
has to meet in its course from Regensburg to 
Sulina. The ideal of the protectionist is real- 
ized in these Danube principalities — the ideal 
of the Chinaman — no trade, no intercourse with 
fellow-man. Would that my protectionist 
friends would canoe on the edges of Bulgaria 
and Roumania, and Russia ; they would come 



130 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 

back Free Traders, or, if not quite so regener- 
ate as that, would at least pray that one fron- 
tier should include the Danube and all its nav- 
igable tributaries, so that the blessings of Free 
Trade might be felt, at least partially, by 
States that now are ruining themselves in 
frantic efforts to get rich by imitating the 
methods of the gentleman who framed the 
McKinley Bill. 



RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 

' I "'HE farm of my Roumanian friend lay 
■*■ somewhere between Bucharest and 
Jassy on the foothills of the Carpathians, and 
not more than two days' military marching 
from the Russian frontier. He wished me to 
pay him a visit in a part of his country which 
had lain in the path of the Russian advance in 
1877, and which would suffer most in the event 
of another war. 

When I had provided safe quarters for my 
canoe, which was to me more precious than 
all the Balkan States, I purchased a third- 
class ticket, by dint of pantomime mingled 
with transatlantic Latin, and found that it en- 
titled me to ride for six hours in a wooden box 
on wheels with a lively assortment of Jews, 
long-haired peasants, shepherds with tall 
lamb's-wool hats, Turks with red sashes, and 
some handsome lasses who wore a single gar- 

131 



132 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 

ment. The day was violently hot, but not 
hot enough to discourage me from enjoying 
the society of my box-load, which behaved, 
by the way, with more courtesy one to another 
than many a compartment of higher grade in 
countries that consider themselves more civil- 
ized. Two priests of the Greek Church sat 
near and sought to converse with me. My 
dress was much the worse for hard service, 
and as I carried a sailor's kit bag, they took 
me, of course, for a bankrupt mechanic or 
sailor sent home by his consul. These priests 
wore robes of majestic dignity, the effect of 
which was, however, spoiled by the amount of 
grease and other filth that had accumulated 
all over them. They were, like those I sub- 
sequently saw, handsome .men, with long 
beards and hair reaching to the shoulder. 
Each carried a dirty bundle under his arm — 
from the corner of one I noticed the end of a 
loaf of coarse bread protruding. It was some 
time before either of these priests could find a 
seat, as no passenger rose to offer his. And 
yet this was just the sort of passengers of 



RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 33 

whom, in any other country, such a courtesy 
might have been expected. What is more, 
the priests themselves did not act as though 
they expected any more consideration than 
other peasants. 

However, I was anxious to talk with them, 
and as they spoke no modern language save 
their own, I called to a half-drunken man, 
who had been raising much merriment at their 
expense, and asked him to interpret for me. 
This man I had, some minutes before, pushed 
off the bench in front of me because his be- 
havior annoyed a little girl next to him, but 
he bore no malice and spoke to me in pretty 
fair German. 

"Where do you come from?" I asked. 

"Nowhere! lama Pole," was his laconic 
but sad answer. Instead of acting as inter- 
preter, however — for I asked him if the priests 
spoke Latin — he took his battered hat from 
his head, shook it at arm's length in the faces 
of the clerical gentlemen, and said : 

"Is there anything inside of that hat?" 

"No," was my answer. 



134 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 

"Well, there is just so much in the heads of 
those dirty pigs ! " 

The reverend gentlemen thus referred to 
obviously failed to understand what my Polish 
informant said; though, from the way in which 
the people in general treated them, I doubt 
whether anyone in the car would have much 
resented the language used. 

My Roumanian friend had prepared a wel- 
come for me in the shape of a peasant dance, 
to which had been invited all the young people 
of his village, as well as the parents. The 
dancing was upon the lawn in front of the high 
verandah. Wine and cake were dispensed 
without stint; the young lads and lasses danced 
with wonderful grace and vigor; the maidens 
were pretty and very active; the old people 
had seats brought out for them by the servants 
of the house; and nothing was lacking to form 
a picture of Arcadian contentment. Soon, 
too, arrived the village priest, his long grey 
locks flowing in waves upon his shoulders, and 
with a beard to make the fortune of a prophet. 

No one paid more attention to him than to 



RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. I35 

another, and it did not occur to anyone to in- 
vite him into the house or even to sit upon the 
verandah. He came, however, without being 
asked; stopped a few moments to partake of 
refreshments; then, receiving no encourage- 
ment to continue his visit, rose and went again 
to where the gipsy band was putting life into 
the frisky feet of the peasants. As his form 
reached a safe distance, I heard something- 
like " Damn his impudence ! " from more than 
one upon the verandah, and this gave rise in 
me to the suspicion that my long-robed friends 
of the third-class compartment were, after all, 
not such bad specimens of the priestly craft in 
this part of the world. I took the first oppor- 
tunity of comparing notes on this subject with 
not merely my host, but others in his station, 
who know their country well and what they 
have to hope and fear from their priesthood. 
To put their many statements into a concrete 
form would make one somewhat like this : 

" The Roumanian priest is educated for the 
most part in Russia, and as the little he knows 
comes from such places as Kieff, it is natural 



136 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 

that our priests in general look to Petersburg 
for guidance much as the Roman Catholics of 
London and New York turn to Rome. I can- 
not deny that they are a power — a great power; 
but they are far from being the greatest. If 
they were well educated they would be dan- 
gerous, but they are as a rule so stupid, and so 
little beyond the peasant with whom they con- 
sort, that they lose much of the opportunity 
offered them." 

" What is their social position ? " was a ques- 
tion I put my host — rather a superfluous one 
after what I had witnessed. 

"They are dirty brutes; no one will have 
them in their house. This one you saw comes 
here once a month to scatter holy water about 
and frighten away the devil, for which I have to 
give him a few francs so as not to make him 
my enemy. He goes about doing this sort of 
thing all over the district, squeezing coppers 
wherever he can. He had the impudence to 
come up here to-day because he wanted to see 
you and find out something about you; but we 
never dream of having him inside of the house 



RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 37 

as a guest. Why I don't believe he ever used 
a fork in his life ! " 

" Are they then so poor ? " 

" Not a bit of it. They are much better off 
than the priests in Greece, and even in Russia. 
Each of them has sixteen pogons of land — 
about sixteen acres — and they get in addition a 
sack of wheat once a year from each one of 
their peasants, and on top of this they get a 
State bounty, for here everyone must pay 
taxes to support the Established Church, no 
matter whether he is Jew or Protestant. 

" Moreover, as in the Anglican Church, the 
bishops sit in Parliament and influence legisla- 
tion. The bishops, however, in Roumania are 
drawn from religious orders whose members 
are not allowed to marry, whereas the parish 
priests must marry. The class from which 
bishops are created is also much superior in 
intelligence and breed to that from which par- 
ish priests are recruited. The bishops are 
nominated by the Synod, but are selected by a 
joint vote of both Houses before the names can 
be submitted to the King for approval. So far, 



138 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 

it is taken for granted that names submitted to 
the King will always be approved." 

As to their relations in the event of war I 
received no encouraging answer. 

" The Roumanian priests are the most dan- 
gerous enemies we have. They are pretty 
much all under Russian influence, and cannot 
conceive of anything good emanating else- 
where than from KiefT or Moscow. The Rus- 
sians are massing troops against us all along 
their Bessarabian frontier, and none of us are 
simple enough to suppose that those troops 
are there for ornamental purposes." 

" What is to be the result then ? " 

" The patriotism of the people will carry 
the day the moment war is declared. The 
priests may do their worst; but they can 
never make us forget what we did for Russia in 
1877, how cruelly we have suffered at Russian 
hands since then, and how much worse things 
are in store for us if Russian troops again 
march across our territory. Make no mistake, 
Roumania realizes what Russian friendship 
means; and that is why we are preparing for a 



RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 39 

fight to the last man when the signal is made 
in Berlin." 

I need only add that my friends were all 
orthodox members of the Greek communion. 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 
ON FOOT. 

T NSTE AD of returning home from Galatz by 
•*~ the quickest way, I thought it might be 
instructive to run over to Odessa, and from 
there by easy stages reach the Baltic and 
the Channel. My canoe, which had carried me 
from the sources of the Danube as far as Bul- 
garia, I saw safely stowed upon a steamer 
bound up the river, and with it I sent all lug- 
gage that might possibly cause delay at the 
frontier. Then I looked about for a vehicle to 
carry me from this easternmost town of Rou- 
mania to the nearest railway station on Russian 
soil. Murray's guide to Russia, as well as the 
principal atlases, both English and German, 
indicated a railway between Galatz and Reni, 
but this was a mistake, as I quickly discovered. 
The distance to the Russian frontier is called 

ten miles, and thence to the Russian railway 

140 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 141 

at Reni is at least five more. I offered much 
money, but could find no driver in Galatz bold 
enough to take me amongst the Russians. I 
offered to procure a passport for them from the 
Russian consul, but this they assured me would 
not be respected; they might be kidnapped 
into the army, clapped ofT to Siberia, sent to 
jail — they were not sure what shape their pun- 
ishment might take, but they one and all de- 
clined, through fear of bodily harm. This 
proves nothing except the confidence inspired 
by the officials across the Pruth. 

The only thing for me to do, therefore, was 
to drive as far as the boundary and then take 
my chance. My baggage consisted of a water- 
proof sailor's bag containing the remnants of 
my camping wardrobe — mostly books and 
maps, and a large ulster that I used sometimes 
as a makeshift bed. The road to the Pruth lay 
for the most part along the edge of a vast la- 
goon of the Danube, the river itself being hid 
from me by low marshy tracts covered with 
reeds. Water-fowl of many kinds were abun- 
dant, herons, flamingoes, ducks, and sea-gulls. 



142 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 

But it was the savage lonesomeness of the 
stretch that made most impression upon me. 
But for the telegraph poles, supporting a single 
wire, there was scarcely a sign of civilization 
between the important town I had left and the 
railway terminus I was seeking. The road was 
more like a dirt track than a commercial high- 
way, and would be difficult to find in thick 
weather were it not for the telegraph poles. 
After a journey of more than an hour of rough 
jolting we drew up at a shabby house, from 
which emerged a Roumanian, who demanded 
my passport, which, as he could not understand 
it, he handed back with much grumbling. 

The Pruth, which here separates Russia from 
Roumania, is no larger than the Thames at Ox- 
ford, and I expected to find at least a bridge, 
possibly a cab, for this is the shortest route be- 
tween Galatz and Odessa. There was no bridge, 
however, so I procured a man to paddle me 
across in a native dug-out canoe, reminding 
me of those in use by the natives of Florida 
and British Guiana. This man had, apparent- 
ly, a dread of Russia as genuine as that of the 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 143 

Galatz drivers, for he would not carry my bag 
up to the Customs House, but dumped it on the 
mud bank of the stream, and hurried back to 
Roumania. At each end of this little ferry 
stood a soldier, forming a link in a vast chain 
of frontier guards— 5,000 on the Roumanian 
and 25,000 on the Russian side, who are night 
and day vigilantly on the look-out for a smug- 
gler, a suspect, or a Jew. A villainous-looking 
official slouched down to the Russian sentry- 
box as I climbed up the river bank and ordered 
me into the only house to be seen, where sat 
another of the same type, who was soon joined 
by several fellows stamped with official sav- 
agery. George Kennan has described this type 
in the language he uses about one he met with 
in Kachinski — an inspector of police — " an evil- 
looking miscreant with green, shifty feline eyes, 
who, without his uniform, would have been 
taken anywhere for a particularly bad type of 
common convict." The moment I looked at 
these men I began to wish myself back, even 
in Roumania. 

My passport was, of course, immediately de- 



144 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 

manded in an insolent manner, and while three 
looked on, the fourth attempted to examine it 
critically and write down my name. As, how- 
ever, no one of them knew French, German, or 
Latin, our attempts at an understanding proved 
abortive, and as none of them understood a 
word of my passport, they concluded that my 
name must be the first word that was in script, 
which happened to be the word Plenipoten- 
tiary. My name is therefore to-day entered in 
the police chronicle of Bessarabia as Mr. Pleni- 
potentiary, my Christian name being put down 
as Minister. Much shaking of heads occurred 
over the fact that the passport was dated Lon- 
don, while the superscription was that of the 
American State Department, they evidently 
» regarding this as an evidence of sharp practice 
of some kind. They asked me many questions 
in a very rough manner, but as I made all my 
answers in English, they finally gave me up, 
and proceeded to rummage my sailor's bag. I 
happened to have* the last number of the 
Speaker, a copy of Punchy and a large work in 
German on the lower Danube. All my notes 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. I45 

I had carefully concealed next to my skin. 
Punch and the Speaker they studied carefully 
and at length, but the work that disturbed them 
most was the tamest of all books, Heck's Dan- 
ube, in German, with many illustrations. This 
they fumbled page for page while I stared at a 
large chromo of the Czar, which occupied 
nearly all of one side of the room. As it took 
me more than an hour to pass this frontier with 
only a boat-bag for luggage, I calculated that 
at this rate not more than twelve people could 
conveniently run the gauntlet in any one day. 
It is needless to say that my boat-bag was com- 
pletely turned inside out and every article ex- 
amined to the smallest, and that no effort was 
made to assist me in putting the articles back 
again. I was treated exactly as though I had 
been found guilty of a gross offence and was 
before particularly offensive judges. 

At last I was permitted to leave. I asked 
no questions, but taking the points of the com- 
pass by the sun, struck a trail which I judged 
would bring me to Reni in a couple of hours; 
and it did. But my tramp was made on the 



I46 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 

hottest day of a hot and dry season, and my 
boat-bag and ulster weighed very much before 
I had gone the full five miles. I took off my 
coat, rolled up my sleeves, and trudged along 
in the dust, grateful only that I had passed the 
customs without having been locked up pend- 
ing examination. Half-way on my tramp, as 
nearly as I could calculate, I passed several 
earthworks well situated to command the 
Danube against a descending flotilla, and ready 
to receive three batteries at least. Shortly be- 
yond these I found a little tree, in the shade of 
which I sat down to cool off and make a few 
notes. My tramp had been along the edge of 
a swamp on one side and a bare prairie on the 
other; and only one peasant cart passed me as 
I trudged in the dust and heat. Near the earth- 
works were two large compounds formed by 
four brick walls thick enough to resist old-fash- 
ioned light artillery, about fourteen feet high 
and, from my estimate, four hundred feet long 
in each direction. In the midst of each com- 
pound was a building of brick at which men 
were busy repairing the roofs and making the 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 1 47 

windows smaller. The casual passer would 
have said that it was being arranged as a store 
house for war material. It did not invite a 
nearer inspection, as many of the busy people 
wore uniform hats. 

And so I sweated along to Reni, which is, 
after seeing many villages of Holy Russia, per- 
haps the dirtiest, shabbiest hole that is at pres- 
ent used for human habitation outside of China. 
The principal industry of the town appeared to 
be the filling of magazines with grain, and as 
the English papers were then full of accounts 
of a famine all over the country, I could not 
but be surprised that it should be stored here 
on the very frontier of Roumania, and that the 
people who did the storing appeared all to 
wear official caps. Had this grain been intend- 
ed for the famishing millions of the Czar's peo- 
ple, it would have been taken to the railway or 
to the boats in the river, and thence shipped to 
the points of distress; but here it seemed to be 
stored up in order to feed any troops that might 
be needed at this particular point of the fron- 
tier. What I saw was so highly suggestive of 



143 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 

various things, that I paused a few moments to 
think it over — and that was wrong I discovered, 
for an official of the type described by Kennan 
came up to me, and in a snarling tone of voice 
snapped out the ominous word "Pass." 

I was not sketching, was not making notes, 
had committed no crime, beyond appearing to 
be a foreigner, and for this was treated in the 
open highway as though I had come to rob a 
Russian hen-roost. Of course I pulled out my 
document, and though this brute, like the oth- 
ers, could understand nothing of its contents, 
he commenced to mutter at me, indicating that 
it was not in order, and that I must come with 
him. Now this was the last thing that I had a 
mind to do, and I was saved by the lucky acci- 
dent of a crowd collecting about me, and with 
it a physician who spoke French fluently, and 
who offered to interpret for me. This gentle- 
man explained the passport to the feline, tal- 
low-skinned, pink-eyed official, who was thus 
robbed of an excuse for making some money 
out of me, and I was allowed to walk on. The 
physician saluted me coldly as we separated on 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. I49 

the street, and I regretted it, as he appeared to 
be of superior breeding. The explanation came 
soon, however, for when we met by accident in 
the dirty hotel of Reni, the manner of the man 
was quite changed. He was cordiality itself, 
but gave me to understand that it would not 
do for him to appear to have any sympathy 
whatever with an outsider. He was a Greek, 
he said, who was resident here when the coun- 
try was Roumanian, and after it passed under 
Russian rule he had secured a small official 
post in connection with his profession. He was 
going back to Athens in a few weeks, however, 
as life in Russia was becoming daily more in- 
tolerable to a man of education or liberal ideas, 
particularly if he was not Russian in every re- 
spect. He had come to this hotel to see a pa- 
tient, he said; shook me warmly by the hand, 
as no one was watching us, and we parted. He 
is now safely over the frontier, or I should not 
dare mention this. 

Reni is a ragged, dirty village, with broad, 
unmade streets choking with dust, and rough 
peasant houses, or rather cabins. I made my 



150 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 

way to the railway station, and found here a 
terminus fit for a metropolis. No one here 
could speak anything but Russian, and only by 
pantomime did I discover that there was no 
train for Odessa until the day following. So I 
strolled about the place, and wondered why 
they needed so much railway terminus for a 
place that connected nothing but a swamp 
and a rolling, naked prairie. Here are three 
well-made side tracks, one a thousand, a sec- 
ond nine hundred, and the last eight hundred 
yards long. These tracks are surrounded by 
a palisade of wooden planks steeped in tar; and 
as the arrangements cannot have been made 
with any reference to the commercial require- 
ments of this dirty village, and the grass and 
weeds have grown up luxuriantly between 
the tracks, the casual stroller is inclined to 
think that this elaborate station was made so 
as to be handy when it is determined to seize 
the mouth of the Danube. 

When I boarded my train on the morning 
following, I counted six passengers distributed 
amongst six railway carriages, and twelve men 



CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 1 5 1 

in uniform, who seemed to belong in some way 
to the train. The locomotive was made at 
Chemnitz in Germany, and pulled us along a 
very rough road at the rate of fourteen and a 
half miles an hour to Bender, where I changed 
to another road for Odessa. The first thing I 
did on arrival was to hunt up the best book 
shop, kept by a German, and try to get some 
works on Russia. " There is only one good 
book on Russia," said the head of the house, 
" and that I cannot give you. It is by George 
Kennan." 



RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 

rHE German Emperor has as late as last 

A November assured at least one personal 

friend that he will not attack Russia, that his 

country is in need of peace, and that so far as 

in him lies he will maintain it. 

Whatever hostile criticism this ruler may 
have drawn upon himself through too frank 
utterances in after-dinner speeches, or in con- 
tributions to the birthday albums of his inti- 
mates, not even a Russian can charge him with 
hypocrisy, or its twin-sister, fear. His recent 
action against prostitution ; .his interference 
for the more humane treatment of soldiers by 
officers and non - commissioned officers ; his 
decrees in favor of freeing the poor book-rid- 
den school children from the short-sighted 
though well-meant tyranny of the professors ; 
his treatment of the Poles in his Eastern prov- 



RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 53 

inces, differing so widely from what they had 
been led by Bismarck to expect ; his efforts to 
establish the principle of arbitration in the 
quarrels between employers and employed — 
these and other measures associated with his 
name are not, as in some monarchies, merely 
the productions of boards and commissions, 
but are, in his case, the very reflection of his 
personal study and sympathies. And these 
measures owe a very large share of their effi- 
ciency to the vigor with which he enforces 
their execution. 

Within the last few days the correspondents 
of foreign papers in Russia have felt them- 
selves compelled to publish as news that there 
was in Berlin a war party ; that Russia had 
reason to fear that this war party would be too 
strong for the German Government, and would 
impel Germany to attack Russia at a time 
when, as she wishes the world to believe, her 
resources are greatly diminished by famine. 
She is assiduously seeking to create the im- 
pression abroad that she is the friend of peace, 
that she is doing nothing to provoke her neigh- 



154 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 

bors, but is so fearful of their sudden incursion 
across her borders that she must appeal to the 
rest of the world to recognize the innocenee of 
her position. 

In view of what Russia is doing in this re- 
spect, even to the extent of having the Czar's 
picture published in an English review as the 
11 Peace-keeper of Europe," and particu- 
larly by way of marginal reference to more 
matter of the same kind, no doubt now on its 
way from St. Petersburg, let me mention one 
or two reasons for thinking that Russia's pro- 
fessed desire for peace is not above suspicion. 

The Czar, as we all know, spent part of last 
year in Denmark. On his return to Russia it 
was expected that he would make an effort to 
return the visit which he owed the German 
Emperor. He did nothing of the kind, al- 
though in returning to his home he made use 
of German railways to transport him, of Ger- 
man regiments to line the railway tracks, and 
of German officials, who were paraded upon 
the platforms in his honor. 

It might have been expected that he would 



RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 55 

have observed such common forms of cere- 
mony as prevail when one gentleman tres- 
passes upon the estate of another. In other 
words, Germans had reason to think that, in 
case extreme urgency called him to his home, 
he would at least have sent a message to that 
effect, and, in a measure, have excused himself. 
He did not, however, so much as send a ser- 
vant to leave his pasteboard upon the front 
steps of his neighbor's house, while himself 
making a short cut over that neighbor's lawn. 
Whether he is responsible for this or his Min- 
isters, matters little, for the effect is the same 
in either case. 

The Russian papers promptly made specious 
explanations in regard to the circumstance, 
but is it not strange that no explanation was 
made to the one person against whom the 
rudeness was directed ? Russia is in a posi- 
tion to say to her friends in the banking-houses 
of Paris : "You see that our Czar has offered 
Germany an insult ; how can you doubt our 
devotion for you, and how can you hesitate to 
furnish us with all the money we need ? " 



156 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 

The German Emperor himself can, of course, 
take no notice of this piece of gross incivility, 
and the press at large accepts what is tele- 
graphed from St. Petersburg as though it did 
not know that all such utterances were care- 
fully edited by Government officials. 

The famine has been carefully exploited un- 
til, at last, some of the truth has leaked out. I 
believe the truth is what I was told on excel- 
lent authority, in Russia, six months ago. 
There is famine in Russia somewhere almost 
every year, just as there is on the North-Amer- 
ican Continent, in the sense that the harvest is 
not a success at all points in the same season. 
The calamity from which Russians suffer this 
year over a small part of their vast country is 
not so much famine as an oppressive number 
of very ignorant, very brutal, and very immor- 
al officials, who prevent the people from doing 
anything for themselves, and prevent the Gov- 
ernment from knowing what it ought to do, 
even assuming that there was a Czar who 
wished that Government to act for the benefit 
of his people. 



RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 57 

While the columns of English papers were 
telling the world that whole districts were 
starving, I was traveling from the Black Sea 
to the Baltic by way of Kieffand Warsaw, in 
the midst of every indication of good harvests; 
and hearing from merchants that the alleged 
famine need not occasion the smallest disturb- 
ance in Russian minds. Not only was the har- 
vest good over a large part of Russia, but the 
grain-producing countries along the Danube 
were supplying fleet upon fleet of merchant- 
men with abundant cargoes of wheat and 
maize. Then, too, in the midst of this alleged 
distress, did the Russian Government do any- 
thing beyond discussing it in the papers ? We 
certainly have no evidence that it did. On the 
contrary, the great transportation lines of the 
country have been utilized in these critical times, 
not in conveying food to famishing villages, or 
bringing peasants and their cattle away from 
farms which could not sustain them. In my 
journey along the western frontier, it seemed 
as though Russian railways had no freight to 
carry, save infantry, cavalry, and artillery. 



158 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 

The sidings were occupied for the most part 
by long lines of goods-trains, moving more 
troops up to the borders of Austria and Ger- 
many. Already, at that time, nine-tenths of 
the whole peace establishment of Russia was 
mobilized along this line, but that has not pre- 
vented the westward movement from continu- 
ing in the same menacing manner. Germany 
does not threaten Russia. Her frontiers are 
open to the inspection of every tourist. He 
can stroll past every picket from Memel to 
Metz, without fear of discourtesy, much less ar- 
rest. He will find the German troops in their 
proper garrisons as they are marked off on the 
ordinary military maps for sale everywhere, in 
glaring contrast to Russia, whose savages from 
the frontiers of Mongolia are now patrolling the 
banks of the Narew and the-Niemen. 

If Russia says that Austria is a menace, the 
plea is still feebler than the one she puts for- 
ward in regard to Germany. The Austrian 
Emperor has had great misfortunes in the 
course of a long reign. His warlike ventures 
have been unsuccessful; his empire is com- 



RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 59 

posed of states animated by a strange hatred 
one for the other. He is a conscientious man, 
and in an eminent degree deserves to be called 
a gentleman. He makes few promises and 
breaks none. The Magyar may hate the Czech; 
the Serb and the Roumanian may come to 
blows; Austria may be attacked by all four, 
but not one has any feeling for Franz Joseph 
save esteem, if not love. He has won the 
hearts of his people in a more than convention- 
al manner, and is loved most sincerely by the 
very Hungarians who fought him hardest in 
the days of '48. 

This monarch has need of all his tact and 
the strength of every department of his State 
machinery to develop harmoniously the great 
resources of the country. He does not wish 
for war. He has said it, and he means it; and 
no one who knows him can suspect that his 
statement is any less genuine than that of his 
ally in Berlin. 

If he is made to seem warlike, it is because 
Russia has the clearly defined purpose of con- 
quering the countries that border the Lower 



l6o RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 

Danube, and bringing under her barbarous 
rule a vast territory lying in the path of Eu- 
rope's commerce and civilization. Russia 
means to cross the Pruth, to annex Roumania 
as a matter of course; and whatever she may 
do with Constantinople, she at least means that 
the Danube shall be Russian and not Euro- 
pean. The wealth which this stream repre- 
sents is as yet hardly suspected by the most 
visionary political speculators, although it is 
to-day a stream comparatively insignificant, 
owing to the antiquated semi-civilized com- 
mercial legislation adopted by the feeble coun- 
tries along its lower reaches — a legislation eu- 
phemistically called Protectionism. 

Russia at this point has her hand raised to 
strike, and when she does, it will not be in 
the interest of European commerce or civili- 
zation. 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

|"N the summer of 1891 I had been enabled, 
-*- through a series of happy combinations, to 
undertake a consecutive voyage down the 
Danube from the Black Forest to the Black 
Sea. For about 1,500 miles of the river my 
only means of progress was a canoe weighing 
eighty pounds net, in which I slept at night 
and made notes by day — sometimes paddling, 
but more frequently using my two sails. Prog- 
ress under such conditions was comparatively 
slow — fifty miles a day was considered a good 
day's work — but it was none too slow for one 
looking at men and things from a canoe deck. 
The commercial or economic feature of this 
cruise was an object lesson on the blessings of 
free trade. In Germany the Danube passes 
Baden, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Prussia, states 

which now trade freely one with the other, but 

161 



162 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

which, before the imperial federation, support- 
ed four sets of customs officials in order to pre- 
vent the people from seeking their natural 
market. 

At the Austrian frontier a tax was demanded 
and our passport examined. Here the ques- 
tion rose naturally: If it is well for Austria to 
shut out the commerce of Germany, is it not 
equally well that the States of the Mississippi 
Valley act in the same spirit, and that Louisi- 
ana protect itself against Illinois, Kentucky 
against Iowa ? We settled that question long 
ago, and we hope forever. Europe has a river 
that is in many respects like the " Father of 
Waters," in that it forms a great and natural 
commercial path across Europe. Many inde- 
pendent states are along its banks, each 
strangely jealous of the other, and to-day each 
seeks to restrict rather than increase her com- 
merce with the other river neighbors. Russia, 
Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, and Hungary each 
acts toward the rest as though commerce were 
an evil instead of a blessing. 

Thanks to my method of progression and to 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 163 

many other facilities of social intercourse, I 
was much struck by the extent to which the 
German language was used, as compared with 
the French. Many of my friends who had vis- 
ited the lower Danube some ten years before 
assured me that I should find German of scant 
use after leaving Austria proper, and that if I 
did not learn the languages in current use I 
had better try French. 

The German language in Hungary, as is 
well known, was boycotted after the revolu- 
tion of '48, and there is still the same popular 
distrust of Austria's language amongst the 
Magyars of to-day as there is of "British free 
trade" amongst Irish- Americans. In spite of 
this, however, considerations of trade have 
prevailed; and as Germans are the best cus- 
tomers within reach of the Magyars, the trad- 
ing class, at least, realize that their children 
must speak that tongue, as well as their own. 
Hence it is that on the Danube I never found 
myself in a place so small that I could not 
hold conversation in German, nor did I ever 
find a boat, a raft, or a dock that was not 



164 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

managed by some one speaking the tongue of 
"the fatherland." 

From Hungary to the Black Sea the Ger- 
man tongue fluctuated according to the vol- 
ume of trade done with western Europe and 
the intelligence of the individual. Even the 
proprietor of a water-mill in Bulgaria talked 
German with me, though his business was not 
one that brought him in contact with any but 
his own peasantry. 

When Spaniards, French, English, and In- 
dians contested for the Mississippi basin at the 
beginning of this century, the result was one 
which helps us to realize the deplorable con- 
sequences to commerce from division of con- 
trol over such territory. 

The Danube must soon fall to the control of 
one power, the one whose language is most 
general, whose administration is most re- 
spected, whose civilization promises the great- 
est material development, whose government 
gives the fullest guaranty of stability and force. 
To-day nearly every enterprise on the Danube 
is managed or owned by Germans, from the 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 165 

floating bath at Galatz to the great engineering 
works at the Iron Gates. 

German capital is seeking investment along 
this line as fast as the conditions of the coun- 
try promise security; the trading community 
is ready for closer communion with the west; 
and there is in every class a growing feeling 
that the prosperity of the Danube countries 
depends not merely upon the Austro-Hungar- 
ian, but is bound up with the commercial 
policy of the German empire. 

At this moment, therefore, it is not strange 
that from Vienna to Sulina anxious eyes 
should be directed towards Berlin — eager to 
know if the Emperor takes much interest in 
the problem of "Greater Germany" from a 
commercial standpoint. 

Bismarck instructed William II. in polit- 
ical economy, and it is not too much to say 
that no politician of modern times has had 
a better opportunity of influencing the spread 
of protectionism than the late Chancellor of the 
German Empire. His instruction was given at 
the particular request of the pupil's venerable 



l66 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

grandfather, the late William L, and it is fair to 
add that it was begun with genuine reluctance 
on the tutor's part — for the Chancellor was very 
busy, the pupil very young, and considering 
the then magnificent health of the Crown 
Prince Frederick, there was no reason to think 
that the present Emperor would come into 
power until far into the next century. The 
young prince enjoyed his course hugely — as 
who would not with such a teacher ! Youth 
admires the didactic professor, and the man 
who for a quarter of a century had by turns 
cajoled or bullied nearly every cabinet in Eu- 
rope seemed eminently suited to impress the 
imagination of a youth strong in enthusiasm, 
but lacking the experience on which strong 
purposes are based. 

The Crown Prince's tutor before attending 
the course of " Professor" Bismarck was a 
gentleman universally respected for the purity 
of his character and the many philanthropic 
efforts associated with his name. Of course, I 
refer to Dr. Hinzpeter. One day the doctor 
was kindly showing me over a most interesting 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 167 

charitable institution and incidentally dwelt 
upon the force of great ideas in producing no- 
ble results. He deplored the money-making 
tendency of America and asserted, much to my 
amazement, that my country had not furnished 
a single idea of value to humanity. Of course 
I protested — thinking immediately of Franklin, 
Fulton, Morse, and Edison, to say nothing of 
several men of letters and statesmen whom I 
had been taught to venerate. Before I could 
formulate a reply, however, Dr. Hinzpeter 
halted and said: "Stop. Yes, you have pro- 
duced one great man — one grand idea — Carey !" 
At this unexpected proposition I looked close- 
ly at the learned doctor to discover if he was 
perpetrating a joke at so serious a moment. I 
satisfied myself that he was not, and that he 
referred to the late Henry Charles Carey, of 
Philadelphia, the so-called Father of American 
Protectionism, and the author of many works, 
none of which has ever been regarded as a con- 
tribution to political science by any economist 
of repute. 

When the present Emperor came to the 



1 68 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

throne it was almost a criminal offence to ques- 
tion Bismarckism in any form. George von 
Bunsen had been prosecuted for venturing to 
make a speech to his constituents in opposition 
to the tax on breadstuffs; a law was in exist- 
ence giving the police extraordinary powers of 
search and arrest, nominally to overawe social- 
ists, but practically to intimidate all who were 
not Bismarckian; the very universities had be- 
come so infected with a nondescript doctrine 
of Bismarckian state socialism and paternal 
protectionism that it is no exaggeration to say 
that political economy as a science had ceased 
to exist in Germany. The personal power of 
Bismarck had reached such proportions that 
questions of every kind, from theology to pork- 
packing, were solved by a determination of 
what was or was not Bismarckian. The ad- 
vancement of every man in Germany seemed 
to depend upon loyalty to Bismarck's teach- 
ing — whether that man was a preacher, a 
jurist, a teacher, an engineer, a soldier, or an 
official. In a country where beneficiaries of 
the government represent nearly ten per cent. 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 169 

of the population, a prime minister is sure of a 
strong vote of support; but in the case of Bis- 
marck he had not only this, but also an enor- 
mous prestige from the boldness with which he 
had caused himself to be regarded as the 
author of the German Empire. 

The new Emperor on mounting the throne 
was, of course, expected to sustain the policy 
of a minister whom his grandfather had hon- 
ored with every mark that a loyal subject or 
even a money-making one could ask. The 
reign of Frederick III., less than an hundred 
days, had been too short and too full of physi- 
cal suffering to let the world know the strength 
and breadth of the ruler whom Bismarck next 
appeared to represent. In his successor the 
Germans have an Emperor who has not only 
abundant physical energy and endurance, but 
has along with it a contempt for humbug, so- 
cialism, and the crooked police methods that 
always suggest a feeble or rotten executive. 
He is a practical manager and does not pre- 
tend to be a savior of society. He has no 
quack nostrum for poverty, crime, prostitution, 



170 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

or the discontent that sets class against class. 
His business is to see that the government ma- 
chine runs smoothly, that competent men are 
employed, that the people's taxes are spent for 
the public good, that the law is administered 
without favor, and that reforms are inquired in- 
to. He has the mind of a Yankee; he loves 
experiment; his methods are direct. He is the 
sort of man that forges to the front in a new 
country — the enterprising pioneer. We can 
imagine him learning his trade in some ma- 
chine-shop, then rapidly rising to a position 
where inventive talent, thoroughness, patience, 
and, above all, honesty tell — say, at the head 
of some great manufacturing or ship-building 
enterprise. 

On his succession to power, 1888, he did 
what most intelligent young men do when sud- 
denly placed in charge of an estate. He in- 
quired how the previous manager had done his 
work; he examined personally into cases of al- 
leged wrong; he noted carefully the testimony 
of qualified observers; his eyes were opened to 
the need of reform in many directions; he sug- 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 171 

gested these reforms to his manager; the man- 
ager did not agree with the master; the man- 
ager resigned and now spends his time in em- 
barrassing as far as he can the movements of 
the manager who has superseded him. The 
immediate cause of Bismarck's resignation will 
be known when the Emperor chooses to 
make the matter public. To-day we can 
regard only the official acts of the minister, 
and from these infer what reason there was for 
his being retired from office. Let us suppose 
Bismarck in soliloquy when he is frank with 
himself. Would he not say something like 
this ? "I have ruled the people of Germany 
for twenty years. I have taught them that pro- 
tectionism is the right policy, and I have tried 
to lock up all who disagreed with me. 
I have increased the cost of the workingman's 
food in order to benefit the landed proprietor 
who wants high prices for his wheat and hogs. 
I, too, am a landed proprietor, but that is im- 
material. My protectionism has been logical. 
When the working people grumbled because I 
taxed their dinners I told them that the Gov- 



172 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

ernment would provide for them in old age 
and help them when they were hurt. Strange 
to say, the people were not even then satisfied 
because they found that I had docked their 
wages in order to create my insurance fund, 
and they preferred their own private and inde- 
pendent insurance to the one associated with 
Bismarckian methods. 

"Socialism has constantly increased since 
I have been in power. At the first imperial 
election the socialist votes cast were only about 
100,000, and at the last they were over 1,000,- 
000. That is odd, for I have set the police on 
the discontented as severely as possible. I 
have broken up meetings, confiscated printing 
presses, imprisoned agitators, and done every- 
thing in my power to protect the country from 
heresy. 

" I am also mortified to note that my stern 
measures on the French frontier have not made 
those people love me. I have done my best to 
harass the people in the Polish part of Prus- 
sia, but even they detest me and grow more 
Polish every day. It is, besides, painful to no- 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 173 

tice that while I have always tried to snub 
Austria and England and make friends with 
Russia, the Czar is constantly moving his 
troops against the German frontier and evi- 
dently means war. In short, I have made 
rather a mess of my stewardship." 

Bismarck, of course, did not use this lan- 
guage, and perhaps never will. But recent 
events indicate that the Emperor is not blind 
to the dangers into which Bismarckism with 
its socialistic protectionism has been hurrying 
the country. When he ascended the throne 
one of his first acts was to drop the policy of 
hounding the socialists. He recognized in 
socialism the manifestations of a discontented 
and cranky state of mind which could be cured, 
not so much by police bludgeons as by public 
sentiment and healthy discussion. It is grati- 
fying to note that with the dismissal of Bis- 
marck socialism appears to have lost half its 
vitality. 

Socialism and protectionism spring from the 
notion that the state understands the manage- 
ment of private affairs better than the individ- 



174 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

uals immediately concerned, and it is rare for 
a man to absorb one heresy without soon tol- 
erating the other. This is illustrated by the 
hatred with which the socialists in Germany 
regard the " Freisinnige " party and its organ 
Die Nation, mainly because they are op- 
posed to protection. The same hatred is here 
shown towards Henry George by trades- 
unions, protectionists, socialists, and other 
visionary or selfish people who dream of a 
community happy in its power to shut out all 
but their fortunate selves. 

The Emperor has given the protectionists of 
his country much offence by insisting that the 
burden of taxation shall be equally distributed, 
that the people in one industry shall not be 
protected at the expense of another. He has 
broken through a thick cloud of prejudice 
created by almost unanimous academic and 
official efforts, and has led the way towards 
closer commercial relations with his neighbors. 

The friendship which he feels for America 
is well known and springs from intimate ac- 
quaintance with our best workers; in almost 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 175 

every field — literary, military, and scientific — 
we have to thank this feeling and not the spirit 
of protectionism for the fact that to-day Ger- 
many admits American pork into the country 
— a food product which Bismarck was the 
means of excluding. He has reached out the 
hand of friendship and commerce to his coun- 
try's traditional enemy, Austria; he has broken 
down the barriers of prejudice which have 
separated these countries for centuries, and 
has, contrary to the teachings of his late chan- 
cellor, made of these two Empires a friendly 
federation of sovereign states. It is too much 
to say that Austria and Germany trade as free- 
ly as two States of our country; but I do not 
hesitate to assert that the manner in which the 
German Emperor has inaugurated and carried 
forward the present commercial policy towards 
Austria and Italy will not only extend the 
blessings of comparative free trade over a 
larger area than it has ever before covered in 
Europe, but that this move represents the first 
honest step towards making disarmament pos- 
sible. He has drawn together by bonds more 



176 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

sure than dynastic affinities at least three coun- 
tries. These countries will find, as do our 
States, that the freer the trade with one an- 
other the better for all concerned, and that the 
best guarantee of peace is community of in- 
terest. 

The Emperor has brought into one friendly 
federation more than half a million square 
miles of country, and over one hundred mill- 
ions of people. He has encouraged commer- 
cial intercourse between the semi-tropical 
groves of Sicily and the amber coasts of the 
Baltic; from the iron mines of Westphalia to 
the cattle ranges of the Magyar kingdom. 
Nor can we think that his great economic re- 
form can stop here. Between Hungary and 
the Black Sea are three agricultural countries, 
Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria, with over 
100,000 square miles of territory and more than 
10,000,000 industrious people. They want to 
sell their farm products and need manufactured 
goods in return. The great Danube is a nat- 
ural highway connecting them with Germany 
and civilization; the trade along this stream 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 1 77 

is largely done by Germans, and would soon 
swell to respectable proportions if any govern- 
ment could promise them security. But satis- 
factory commercial progress is out of the ques- 
tion, in a country where the government can- 
not command the respect of its neighbors; and 
so long as it is doubtful whether Russia is to 
have Constantinople, so long will the states of 
the lower Danube remain a comparative wil- 
derness. 

Roumanians and Bulgarians expect a Rus- 
sian advance across their territories, and are 
turning tentatively towards Germany for as- 
sistance. The Danube in Europe is what the 
Mississippi was to us in 1803. We could not 
permit Napoleon to hold the mouth of that 
stream even then when her commerce was a 
mere trifle. We would assuredly have fought 
for its possession had France declined to part 
with it peacefully. 

The benefits that may be expected to result 
from the Emperor's new commercial policy will 
in time become so apparent that the states of 
the lower Danube will seek to share them. 



178 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 

The effect of this will be to draw together, I 
hope forever, all the people along the 1,800 
miles of that great river, from the Black Forest 
to the Black Sea, a dozen states whose alliance 
would be as close as that of our people between 
Minneapolis and New Orleans. That will be a 
fitting time to give Russia a distinct notice that 
her road to Constantinople cannot cross the 
German's Mississippi. 

The Eastern question has so long been ac- 
cepted, like the Irish, as incapable of solu- 
tion, that to apply to it a little dose from the 
pharmacopoeia of Cobden may seem at first 
sight Utopian. But homoeopathic doses have 
done wonders in many obstinate cases; kind- 
ness combined with firmness has done in two 
years what Bismarck has failed to do in twenty. 
And who can say that the generous commer- 
cial policy now uniting Austria and Germany 
will not animate in the near future other states 
as well, and hasten the day of " Peace, good 
will, free trade, amongst nations ? " But what- 
ever the result may be, let us at least be grate- \ 
ful to William II., for being the first to reject 



A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 179 

the mediaeval doctrine that nations prosper in 
proportion to the harm they inflict upon their 
neighbors. 



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Sold only in sets. Cloth, $6.00. 

Eighteen Short Stories and Sketches. — By Mark 
Twain. Including "The Stolen White Elephant," 
"Some Rambling Notes," "The Carnival of Crime," 
"A Curious Experience," "Punch, Brothers. Punch," 
"The Invalid's Story," etc., etc. 16mo, 306 pages. 
Cloth, $1.00. 

Mark Twain's "Library of Humor."— A volume 
of 145 Characteristic Selections from the Best Writers, 
together with a Short Biographical Sketch of Each Au- 
thor quoted. Compiled by Mark Twain. Nearly 200 
illustrations by E. W Kemble. 8vo, 707 pages. Full 
Turkey morocco, $7.00; half morocco, $5.00; half seal, 
$4.25; sheep, $4.00; cloth, $3.50. 

Life on the Mississippi. — 8vo, 624 pages; and over 
300 illustrations. Sheep, $4.25; cloth, $3.50. 

Innocents Abroad ; or, The New Pilgrim's Progress. 
Sheep, $4.00; cloth, $3.50. 

Roughing It. — 600 pages; 300 illustrations. Sheep, 
$4.00; cloth, $3.50. 

Sketches, Old and New. — 320 pages; 122 illustrations. 
Sheep, $3.50; cloth, $3.00. 

Adventures of Tom Sawyer. — 150 engravings; 275 
pages. Sheep, $3.25; cloth, $2.75. 

The Gilded Age. — 576 pages; 212 illustrations. Sheep, 
$4.00; cloth, $3.50. 

A Tramp Abroad. Mark Twain in Europe. — A 

Companion Volume to "Innocents Abroad." 631 
pages. Sheep, $4.00; cloth. $3.50. 



Charles L. Webstei' & Co. 



The War Series. 

The Genesis of the Civil War.— The Story of Sum- 
ter, by Major-General S. W. Crawford, A. M., M. D., 
LL. D. Illustrated with steel and wood engravings 
and fac-similes of celebrated letters. 8vo, uniform with 
Grant's Memoirs. Full morocco, $8.00; half morocco, 
$5.50; sheep, $4.25; cloth, $3.50. 

Personal Memoirs of General Grant. — Illustra- 
tions and maps, etc. 2 vols. ; 8vo. Half morocco, per 
set, $11.00; sheep, per set, $6.00; cloth, per set, $7.00. 
A few sets in full Turkey morocco and tree calf for sale 
at special low prices. 

Personal Memoirs of General Sherman. — With 
appendix by Hon. James G. Blaine. Illustrated; 2 
vols. ; 8vo, uniform with Grant's Memoirs. Half mo- 
rocco, per set, $8.50; sheep, per set, $7.00; cloth, per 
set, $5.00. Cheap edition, in one large volume. Cloth, 
$2.00. 

Personal Memoirs of General Sheridan.— Illus- 
trated with steel portraits and woodcuts; 26 maps; 2 
vols.; 8vo, uniform with Grant's Memoirs. Half mo- 
rocco, per set, $10.00; sheep, per set, $8.00; cloth, per 
set, $6.00. A few sets in full Turkey morocco and tree 
calf to be disposed of at very low figures. Cheap edi- 
tion, in one large volume, cloth binding, $2.00. 

McClellan's Own Story. — With illustrations from 
sketches drawn on the field of battle by A. R. Waud, 
the Great War Artist. 8vo, uniform with Grant's Me- 
moirs. Full morocco, $9.00; half morocco, $6.00; 
sheep, $4.75; cloth, $3.75. 

Memoirs of John A. Dahlgren. — Rear -Admiral 
United States Navy. By his widow, Madeleine Vinton 
Dahlgren. A large octavo volume of 660 pages, with 
steel portrait, maps and illustrations. Cloth, $3.00. 

Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock.— By 

his wife. Illustrated; steel portraits of General and 
Mrs. Hancock; 8vo, uniform with Grant's Memoirs. 
Full morocco, $5.00; half morocco, $4.00; sheep, 
$3.50; cloth, $2.75. 



Price-List of Publications. 

Tenting on the Plains. — With the Life of General 
Custer, by Mrs. E. B. Custer. Illustrated; 8vo, uni- 
form with Grant's Memoirs. Full morocco, $7.00; half 
morocco, $5.50; sheep, $4.25; cloth, $3.50. 

Portrait of General Sherman. — A magnificent line 
etching on copper; size 19x24 inches; by the celebrated 
artist, Charles B. Hall. $2.00. (Special prices on 
quantities.) 

The Great War Library.— Consisting of the best edi- 
tions of the foregoing seven publications (Grant, Sheri- 
dan, Sherman, Hancock, McClellan, Custer and Craw- 
ford). Ten volumes in a box; uniform in style and 
binding. Half morocco, $50.00; sheep, $40.00; cloth, 
$30.00. 

Other Biographical Works. 

Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle. — By Mrs. Alexander 
Ireland. With portrait and fac-simile letter; 8v<>, 324 
pages. Vellum cloth, gilt top, $1.75. 

Life and Letters of Roseoe Conkling. — By Hon. 
Alfred R. Conkling, Ph. B., LL.D. ; steel portrait and 
f ac-similes of important letters to Conkling from Grant, 
Arthur, Garfield, etc. 8vo, over 700 pages. Half mo- 
rocco, $5.50; full seal, $5.00; sheep, $4.00; cloth, 
$3.00. 

Life of Pope Leo XIII.— By Bernard O'Reilly, D. D., 
L. D. (Laval.) Written with the encouragement and 
blessing of His Holiness, the Pope. 8vo, 635 pages; 
colored and steel plates, and full-page illustrations. 
Half morocco, $6.00; half Russia, $5.00; cloth, gilt 
edges, $3.75. 

Distinguished American Lawyers. — With their 
Struggles and Triumphs in the Forum. Containing an 
elegantly engraved portrait, autograph and biography 
of each subject, embracing the professional work and 
the public career of those called to serve their country. 
By Henry W. Scott. Introduction by Hon. John J. 
Ingalls. A large royal octavo volume of 716 pages, 
with 62 portraits of the most eminent lawyers. Sheep, 
|4.35; cloth. $3.50. 



Charles L. Webster & Co. 

Miscellaneous. 

Concise Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.— 

Biblical, Biographical, Theological, Historical and Prac- 
tical; edited by Rev. E. B. Sanford, M. A., assisted by 
over 30 of the most eminent religious scholars in the 
country. 1 vol. ; royal 8vo, nearly 1,000 double-column 
pages. Half morocco, $6.00; sheep, $5.00; cloth, 
$3.50. 
The Table.— How to Buy Food, How to Cook It, and 
How to Serve It, by A/Filippini, of Delmonico's; the 
only cook-book ever endorsed by Delmonico; contains 
three menus for each day in the year, and over 1,500 
original recipes, the most of which have been guarded 
as secrets by the chefs of Delmonico. Contains the sim- 
plest as well as the most elaborate recipes. Presenta- 
tion edition in full seal Russia, $4.50; Kitchen edition 
in oil-cloth, $2.50. 

One Hundred Ways of Cooking Eggs. — Mr. Filip- 
pini is probably the only man who can cook eggs in a 
hundred different ways, and this little book will be 
worth its price ten times over to any purchaser. Cloth 
binding, ink and gold stamps, 50 cents. 
Also uniform with the above, 

One Hundred Recipes for Cooking and Serving 
Fish. — This book contains only the best recipes, all of 
which have been tested by Mr. Filippini during 25 
years' experience with the Delmonicos. Cloth binding, 
ink and gold stamps, 50 cents. 

Yale Lectures on Preaching, and other Writings, by 
Rev. Nathaniel Burton, D. D. ; edited by Richard E. 
Burton. 8vo, 640 pages; steel portrait. Cloth, $3.75. 

Legends and Myths of Hawaii.— By the late King 
Kalakaua; two steel portraits and 25 other illustrations. 
8vo, 530 pages. Cloth, $3.00. 

The Diversions of a Diplomat in Turkey. —By 
the late Hon. S. S. Cox. 8vo, 685 pages; profusely 
illustrated. Half morocco, $6.00; sheep, $4.75; cloth, 
$3.75. 

Inside the White House in War Times.— By W. 

O. Stoddard, one of Lincoln's Private Secretaries. 
12mo, 244 pages. Cloth, $1.00. 



Price- List of Publications. 

Tinkletop's Crime, and eighteen other Short Stories, by 
George R. Sims. 1 vol.; 12ino, 316 pages. Cloth, 
$1.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 

My Life with Stanley's Rear Guard.— By Herbert 

Ward, one of the Captains of Stanley's Rear Guard; 

includes Mr. Ward's Reply to H. M. Stanley. 12mo. 

Cloth, $1.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 
The Peril of Oliver Sargent.— By Edgar Janes Bliss. 

12mo. Cloth, $1.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 

The Old Devil and the Three Little Devils ; or, 
Ivan The Fool, by Count Leo Tolstoi, translated direct 
from the Russian by Count Norraikow, with illustra- 
tions by the celebrated Russian artist, Gribayedoff. 
12mo. 'Cloth, $1.00. 

Life IS Worth Living, and Other Stories.— 

Translated direct from the Russian by Count Norrai- 
kow. This work, unlike some of his later writings, 
shows the great Russian at his best. The stories are 
pure, simple and powerful; intensely interesting as 
mere creations of fancy, but, like all Tolstoi's works, 
written for a purpose, and containing abundant food for 
earnest reflection. Cloth, ink and gold stamps, $1.00. 

The Happy Isles, and Other Poems, by S. H. M. Byers. 
Small 12mo. Cloth binding, $1.00. 

Physical Beauty : How to Obtain and How to Preserve 
It, by Annie Jenness Miller; including chapters on Hy- 
giene, Foods, Sleep, Bodily Expression, the Skin, the 
Eyes, the Teeth, the Hair, Dress, the Cultivation of 
Individuality, etc., etc. An octavo volume of about 300 
pages. Cloth, $2.00. 

Hour-Glass Series.— By Daniel B. Lucas, LL. D., and 
J. Fairfax McLaughlin, LL. D. The first volume, 
which is now ready, contains a series of historical epit- 
omes of national interest, with interesting sketches of 
such men as Henry Clav, Daniel O'Connell and Fisher 
Ames. Lara:el2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 

Adventures of A Fair Rebel.— Author of '"Zeki'l," 
" Bet Crow," " S'phiry Ann," " Was It an Exceptional 
Case?" etc. A story that is sure to be eagerly sought 
after and read by Miss Crim's many admirers. Stamped 
cloth, $1.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 



Charles L. Webstei' & Co. 



In Beaver Cove and Elsewhere.— Octavo, about 350 
pages, illustrated. 

PRESS OPINIONS. 

"A writer who has quickly won wide recognition by short 
stories of exceptional power." — New York Independent. 
" Her magazine articles bear the stamp of genius." — St. Paul 
Globe. 

This volume contains all of Miss Crim's most famous 
short stories. These stories have received the highest 
praise from eminent critics and prominent literary jour- 
nals, and have given Miss Crim a position among the 
leading lady writers of America. Cloth, handsomely 
stamped, $1.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 

The Flowing Bowl : What and When to Drink ; by 
the only William (William Schmidt); giving full in- 
structions how to prepare, mix, and serve drinks: also 
receipts for 227 Mixed Drinks, 89 Liquors and Ratafias, 
115 Punches, 58 Bowls, and 29 Extra Drinks. An 8vo 
of 300 pages. Fine cloth, gilt stamp, $2.00. 









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